Our Mission
The UC Davis CounterACT Center of Excellence is dedicated to identifying improved medical countermeasures for chemical threat agents that cause seizures in humans. The Center's focus is on organophosphate (OP) nerve agents, which include soman, sarin, cyclosarin, tabun and VX. These agents have been used in chemical warfare, terrorist attacks, and assassinations. Survivors often experience long-term progressive brain injury, spontaneous recurrent seizures, and cognitive impairment, which lead to decreased quality of life. We are developing therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat these long-term negative effects and improve neurological outcomes. Findings may also be applicable in cases of acute OP pesticide poisoning.
The UC Davis CounterACT Center funding comes from the NIH CounterACT Program, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, U.S. National Institutes of Health grant number U54 NS127758.
Center work is conducted as a collaborative effort of the School of Veterinary Medicine, the School of Medicine, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Engineering at the University of California, Davis.
Contact Information:
Tracey Fernandez
University of California, Davis
(530) 754-8157
E-mail: tfernandez@ucdavis.edu