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Dr. Jack Jacobs

2025 Presentation(s):

Autism: Is This a Vascular Disease and Would Therapeutic Angiogenesis with FGF-1 be a Potential Treatment?

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Abstract
Numerous lines of evidence, both in humans and animals, indicate that there is a problem with the brain’s blood vessels in individuals with autism. This problem appears focused on the autistic brain’s inability to grow new blood vessels (angiogenesis) when additional demands for a ramped-up blood supply is needed. This leads to a decrease in capillary and arteriole density in areas of the brain that control important activities, including social interactions, communication and impulse control, activities that become disrupted in autism. Zhittya Genesis Medicine is developing one of the most potent angiogenic growth factors (FGF-1) that we have in our bodies and has shown this growth factor can stimulate both new blood vessel growth and new neuron growth in animal models of brain disorders. With recent human studies that have demonstrated the safe and relatively easy manner in which FGF-1 can now be delivered into the brain via intranasal delivery, this promising drug candidate will now be tested in individuals with autism.
Speaker Bio:

Dr. Jack Jacobs
President and Chief Science Officer Zhittya Genesis Medicine, Inc.
Las Vegas, NV 

Dr. Jacobs received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis where he worked in the lab of Ralph Bradshaw, PhD which was the first lab to isolate and characterize the growth factor, FGF-1. After graduating, he worked at Merck & Co. where he started the Department of Biological Chemistry and was part of the scientific leadership team at Merck. Later, he joined Daniel Montano at CardioVascular BioTherapeutics as their Chief Scientific Officer where he oversaw FDA-authorized clinical trials in which human FGF-1 was tested in a number of medical indications, including coronary artery disease and diabetic foot ulcers. He also supervised all manufacturing activities of FGF-1 for use in the clinical studies. With Zhittya Genesis Medicine, Dr. Jacobs is continuing his efforts on the clinical development of human FGF-1 for a number of medical indications, including neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, autism and ALS (motor neuron disease). 

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