D. Samba Reddy is a Regents Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at Texas A&M University School of Medicine. He received his pharmacy degree from Kakatiya University in Warangal, India, and his PhD from Punjab University in Chandigarh.
His research focus is on pharmaceutical therapies for epilepsy, particularly on the compound ganaxolone, which is a synthetic neurosteroid. Ganaxolone has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat CDKL5-deficient epilepsy, a rare form of epilepsy caused by mutations in the CDLK5 gene.
Reddy’s work on neurosteroids began while he was obtaining his PhD. He studied the differences in neurosteroid expression between men and women, which led to his recruitment by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
At the NIH, he continued his research on neurosteroids and their role in brain diseases, particularly catamenial epilepsy in women. He had hypothesized that the seizures in these women were caused by a neurosteroid deficiency and that giving them neurosteroids could treat the problem, which turned out to be correct.
It took over two decades of research and multiple experiments for ganaxolone to be approved for clinical use, receiving millions of dollars in funding from the NIH and other sources. Reddy persevered through the skepticism of others, seeing it as a positive aspect in obtaining robust evidence and continuing research.
“My work is making a difference to patients. That sustains me. So that’s the reason why I hang around and want to stay here and do as much as I can”, says Dr Samba Reddy.
