March 10, 2017 — Researchers at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor may have discovered how a drug derived from a molecule found in dogfish sharks could someday help people recover from heart attacks and heart disease.
Dr. Viravuth Yin, the lead researcher from MDI, said a series of coincidences, combined with years of research on zebrafish and mice, led to the breakthrough.
“This is a potentially game-changing discovery we believe we have,” Yin said.
MDI secured a patent from the U.S. Patent Office in November and last week its research was published in a scholarly journal npj Regenerative Medicine.
The next step is obtaining about $2 million in funding to see if the research that has been done in zebrafish and mice can be replicated in pigs. The lab has an application pending with the National Institutes of Health for the pig research and is seeking venture capital funding, Yin said.
If all goes well, human clinical trials for the drug could begin in about five years. The drug could be on the market in 10-20 years, if research proves fruitful, Yin said.
Zebrafish share about 70 percent of the same genes as humans, and have a strong ability to regenerate.