Emory neurologist Lynn Marie Trotti has been awarded a five-year, $2.1 million grant for clinical research.
The grant, issued by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, will give Trotti and her colleagues with the Emory Sleep Center the chance to build on decades of research regarding the mechanisms behind the antibiotic clarithromycin, a generic drug typically used to treat skin, ear, sinus or lung infections.
According to a university news release, Trotti and her team previously discovered the antibiotic “can reduce pathological sleepiness in people for whom more conventional treatments were not satisfactory.”
This study, she says, “will allow us to learn more about the biology of understudied sleep disorders, and could resolve some questions about how clarithromycin works” and “could provide a foundation for the future development of needed therapies.”