Idea 2 Impact

You will find out as you listen today that Dr. Thomas Kent’s story is unique to his area--he is a neurologist, specifically vascular neurology, as well as a teacher and researcher. BEcause he is working with drugs that will actually be used or injected into the human, the idea to impact journey can be a long one.

Thomas Kent, MD, is the Robert H. Welch Chair Professor at Texas A&M’s Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT). Dr. Kent’s basic science research is exploring the mechanisms by which stroke and neurodegeneration cause their injuries and create new therapies employing carbon-based nanomaterials.  His laboratory has a major focus on commercialization with several patents granted and pending.  This nanomedicine program has garnered nearly $7 million in federal funding and he is actively involved with private investment toward commercialization. Dr. Kent’s NIH-funded clinical research involves precision medicine to identify differences in the response to stroke therapies based on race and sex in collaboration with Morehouse School of Medicine.  This research is important because of the high burden of stroke in the African American community and the “stroke belt” of the Southern US. He is also funded by the State of Texas Lone Star Stroke consortium, a network of the major Texas academic Neurology departments, to study ways of providing better access to stroke prevention in underserved, rural and resource poor urban regions.