Junior Investigators Talk about Curing Epilepsy 2007

A special meeting for junior investigators was held prior to the first official day of the Curing Epilepsy 2007 Conference at the National Institutes of Heath in Bethesda. It was a day for scientific and poster sessions as well as networking. The scientific session, chaired by Manisha Patel, PhD, from the University of Colorado focused on four areas: genetics, epileptogenesis, co-morbidities, and imaging/technology.

Speakers and their talks included: Joycelyn F. Bautista, MD, Cleveland Clinic, “Gene mapping in complex epilepsies”; Kevin Graber, MD, Stanford University, “Prevention of posttraumatic neocortical epileptogenesis” ; Susan T. Herman, MD, University of Pennsylvania, “Electrophysicological biomarkers of epileptogenesis”; W. Curt LaFrance, Jr., MD, Brown Medical School/Rhode Island Hospital, “Neurobehavioral aspects of epilepsy”; and Jenna L. Rickus, PhD, Perdue University, “A hybrid cell silicon neural prosthesis for the treatment of epilepsy.”

In talking with junior investigators during the poster session, epilepsy.com learned that they were attending the conference because of personal experiences with epilepsy or because they felt compelled to find answers that might lead to a cure. We present here a photo essay from the event on March 28, 2007.

Steven Schachter, MD, Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, and Editor-in-Chief of epilepsy.com is pictured here with W. Curt La France, MD, Brown Medical School and Deb Pal, MD, PhD, Columbia University School of Medicine (left to right).

Sydney Cash, MD, PhD, is a member of the Epilepsy Service, Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Here he talks about his work, “Intracortical Microelectrode Recordings of Seizures,” with Tracy Dixon-Salazar. A graduate student at the University of California, San Diego, she is working on a synaptic plasticity project.

Dr. Cash said that in his work he is driven to understand more about the neuro- networking. “I am interested in why neurons and neurotransmitters do not work. Epilepsy is an important and devastating disease and learning how neurons and neural networks work and do not work will hopefully help us achieve a cure.”

Ms. Dixon – Salazar said she came to the conference for several reasons. “Epilepsy is an interesting disorder that lends itself to discovery,” she said. However, she also has a more poignant interest in the field itself. She added, “I have a 13-year-old daughter with epilepsy. She was featured on a CURE cover at the American Epilepsy Society meeting this past year.”

Gregory Barnes, MD, PhD, Deanna Smith, PhD, and David Mott, PhD shared ideas with each other before the opening session. Dr. Barnes is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Deanna Smith, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina. “Deanna Smith, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina. “I just learned about this meeting. And even though it was too late to submit an abstract, clearly I saw so much here to interest me, that I came nonetheless,” she said. When the meeting ended, she added, “I came away with a much better understanding of epilepsy and a profound desire to cure it!”

Face to face with the reality of patient needs

It was because he had been listening to patient stories that David Mott, PhD, came to the conference after learning about it at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in December. An Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neuroscience at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, he said, “I have been working in this area for a long time. I work in a lab. But we began asking patients to come to talk with us in one of our classes at the university. Just hearing the stories of patients really brings home the implications of the disease.”

“When you are doing research sometimes you are so involved in what makes neurons excitable – that you forget that there are people who actually experience the challenges of epilepsy. When you begin to ask questions as to how your work will relate to people, it is from listening to the stories,” he said.

Mott said he was particularly taken aback by the story of one woman with epilepsy who talked about having a seizure, falling, and hitting her face on the corner of a counter. He said, “The woman required 500 stitches. That’s when I realized something – when I do research, I think about brain damage, neurons, and seizures. But I don’t think about the consequences. I don’t think about what happens when someone falls. Patients bring you back to why you are doing the research in the first place. Then you come to a smaller meeting such as this one, and you have a chance to network and hear stories of those with epilepsy, and talk to people who share your goals,” he said.

Manoj Kumar Patel, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Virginia Health System, talks with Randall R. Stewart, PhD, Program Director for Channels, Synapses and Circuits at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Patel’s poster in the background is the “Importance of Anticonvulsant Modulation of Slow Inactivated Sodium Channels.” He said to us, “I attended the meeting to not only learn more about the exciting new developments in epilepsy research, but also to interact with other junior and senior scientists.”

Both seem to agree that a meeting such as Curing Epilepsy motivates and alerts one to an appreciation of patient needs.

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