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by Amanda S.F. Hartle<\/p>\n
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In the race to treat COVID-19, biological sciences alumnus Robert Mays is accelerating treatment for this life-threatening pandemic. For nearly two decades as co-founder of Athersys, Inc., Mays has worked with his colleagues to bring the biotechnology company\u2019s stem cell therapy MultiStem\u00ae to the market.<\/p>\n
In the coming months, their years of effort may change the momentum of COVID-19 treatments by offering a remedy for the most fatal complication caused by the virus \u2014 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).<\/p>\n
With two successful trials completed since 2016, MultiStem\u00ae has been fast-tracked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and designated as a highly relevant therapeutic for COVID-19 by the federal government\u2019s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and its CoronaWatch program, which focuses on expediting diagnostics, vaccines, antivirals and therapeutic treatments for the virus.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur data shows that the stem cells were safe and well-tolerated in patients, and it suggests that the stem cell-treated patients had meaningful improvements in lung function, got off ventilators faster and experienced improved mortality,\u201d said Mays, who serves as vice president of regenerative medicine and head of neuroscience programs at Athersys and earned his doctorate in molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of our trials was very fortuitous considering we didn\u2019t know, obviously, about the pandemic we are currently living through. Because of our data, we were able to quickly design, submit and initiate a Phase 2\/3 trial in COVID-19-induced ARDS patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, no FDA-approved or effective medicine exists for ARDS \u2014 only limited interventions with high treatment costs such as BiPap or CPAP devices or ventilators, which also come with the risks of pneumonia, collapsed lungs or additional lung injury. In cases of COVID-19, the virus introduces pulmonary inflammation that causes fluid accumulation in the lungs and destroys its tissue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe immune system doesn\u2019t care, for the most part, why there is a large inflammatory signal, it just knows it must respond acutely and profoundly,\u201d Mays explained. \u201cThis innate immune response often leads to secondary physiological problems, similar to how COVID-19-induced ARDS occurs. We have data that the MultiStem\u00ae cellular product, when administered at the right places and proper time, causes a more balanced immune response with less secondary damage and hopefully improved patient outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
And unlike a vaccine that may need to be tailored to fight a coronavirus mutation in the future, MultiStem\u00ae should continue to treat patients successfully regardless of why the inflammation starts.<\/p>\n
Beyond COVID-19, Athersys\u2019 data and animal studies also show positive results in the treatment of ischemic strokes, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injury and kidney issues, among other health concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned about how to think like a scientist as an undergraduate. Carnegie Mellon taught me how to be goal-oriented, driven and when to take a risk, which helped in co-founding (Athersys),\u201d Mays said. \u201cHopefully, in the next few years, the projects we work on \u2026 may provide meaningful therapeutic change for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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UNLOCKING THE POWER OF STEM CELLS After nearly 20 years, Robert Mays is on the brink of bringing\u00a0a groundbreaking stem cell therapy to market \u2014 just in time\u00a0to help those suffering from COVID-19 by Amanda S.F. HartleIn the race to treat COVID-19, biological sciences alumnus Robert Mays is accelerating treatment for this life-threatening pandemic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":1322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1463","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1656,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1463\/revisions\/1656"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.mcs.cmu.edu\/bio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}