Rutgers Leads Clinical Trial of Drug to Prevent Cytokine Storms

Rutgers has launched a clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of an oral anti-inflammatory drug that could help prevent serious illness and death in early-stage COVID-19 patients. The drug, EDP1815, developed by Evelo Biosciences Inc., will be given to newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to determine if it can regulate the onslaught of cytokine proteins – which cause the immune system to malfunction and become deadly – and is the reason for severe cases of respiratory distress and death. The trial is led by Reynold Panettieri Jr., vice chancellor for translational medicine and science at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and conducted through the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science and the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science. To read the full story.