Research Grant - 2022

Watch Dr Daniel Beard accept the research grant award and hear a bit about the project.

Project Summary:

Increasing blood flow through brain bypass vessels could help save the brain from stroke. Unfortunately, there has been no effective way of enhancing bypass flow using vessel widening (vasodilating) drugs without causing vasodilation of all blood vessels, leading to a drop in blood pressure (analogous to losing water pressure in a hose). We have teamed up with Harvard University who produce vasodilating drugs packaged into nanoparticles. These nanoparticles only release vasodilating drugs when exposed to levels of a frictional force known as shear stress only found in brain bypass vessels. So far, we have shown that these nanoparticles can selectively deliver vasodilators to only bypass vessels and can enhance bypass flow in our experimental stroke model, significantly reducing stroke severity without a dropping in blood pressure. In this project we aim to confirm the safety of NG-NPAs in a range of pre-clinical stroke models that better reflect the complexity of the stroke patient population to be ready for clinical trials to reduce severity of the stroke and improve patient outcome.

Reports:

Final Report

Dr Beard and his team hypothesised that because elevated shear stress is specific to collateral vessels in ischaemic stroke, it would be safe to give their shear-sensitive NG-NPAs in a haemorrhagic stroke (i.e. administration of NG-NPAs would not necessarily make the haemorrhagic stroke better, but it would not make haemorrhagic stroke worse).

Their findings provide very strong evidence to support their hypothesis. Key points:

• The vasodilating drugs (NG-NPAs) and the nanoparticles themselves (Blank-NG-PAs, which are NPAs without the drug) were both tested in comparison to saline, to see how it would affect haemorrhagic stroke outcomes.
• Both tests confirmed the treatments are safe, as there was no worsening of neurological outcomes in haemorrhagic stroke.
• Next, Dr Beard’s team will investigate the safety of NG-NPAs in relation to other types of brain damage after haemorrhage (e.g. neuroinflammation, blood brain barrier breakdown, and brain swelling).
• Overall, these research findings suggest that their therapy could safely be given to suspected stroke patients in the ambulance en route to hospital.
• This would significantly improve blood flow for patients with ischaemic stroke (the majority of cases – approx 85%), without harming those with haemorrhagic stroke.

You can read more about this research in Dr Beard’s Final Report (August 2025) >

Publications

In August 2025, the initial proof of concept data for the nanoparticles in ischaemic stroke was published in Advanced Science: “Shear Stress Targeted Delivery of Nitroglycerin to Brain Collaterals Improves Ischaemic Stroke Outcome”.

The publication is open access, meaning the full text is available for free. Read now in Advanced Science >