Stroke: 3rd cause of mortality, 1st cause of handicap in adults, and 2nd cause of dementia after Alzheimer disease. 1 500 000 strokes occur each year. Today only a single drug, the tPA, is available to treat stroke patients at the acute phase of the disease. However this treatment requires a CT scan or an MRI before treatment to eliminate a cerebral hemorrhage, and therefore can be used to treat only 5% of patients. Moreover, tPA has a short therapeutic window of 3 to 4.5hrs. For all these reasons, there is a need to develop neuroprotective compounds: 1) targeting different cell types, 2) including multiple pathways involved in cell death, and 3) extensively studied in different animal species and experimental models. NEUROKIN develops neuroprotective agents for the treatment of acute neurological diseases. Its data have shown that inhibition of CDKs has a neuroprotective effect in vitro and in rodent stroke models. The most advanced compound, NK-102, has already undergone some preclinical development, no acute toxicity was observed, and it is able to cross the blood brain barrier. INSERM U919 has a large expertise on rodent and primate stroke models. It has an imaging platform that is unique in France (MRI, PET scan). INSERM U615 is specialized in molecular genetics and epidemiology. It has a large expertise in genomic studies in human. The main objectives of this project are 1) to perform extensive pharmacological studies well controlled in rodents using several experimental models of stroke (STAIR guidelines), 2) to validate NK-102 action mechanisms after stroke in the brain of nonhuman primates, and 3) to initiate regulatory preclinical studies on NK-102, in order to increase probability of success in the clinic.