Book excerpt: A critical and comprehensive look at current state-of-the-art scientific and translational research being conducted internationally, in academia and industry, to address new ways to provide effective treatment to victims of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke and other ischemic diseases. Currently stroke can be successfully treated through the administration of a thrombolytic, but the therapeutic window is short and many patients are not able to receive treatment. Only about 30% of patients are "cured" by available treatments. In 5 sections, the proposed volume will explore historical and novel neuroprotection mechanisms and targets, new and combination therapies, as well as clinical trial design for some of the recent bench-side research.