Profiles of Epilepsy Research Foundation Translational Research Award Recipients

Recipients: Robert E. Gross, MD, PhD, (left) Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, and Steve M. Potter, PhD, (right) Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

Project: Development of a novel electrical stimulation approach that directly controls the activity of the brain to attain a more stable state from which seizures will not arise

By continuously controlling the activity of epileptogenic brain areas with distributed low-voltage stimulation, the researchers have shown that small arrays of multiple electrodes can completely suppress epileptic activity in cultured brain tissue. They hope to maintain the brain in a seizure-free or seizure-resistant state, therefore bypassing the need to detect or prevent seizures, and are investigating this treatment in animal models of epilepsy. Funding for this program was made possible in part through a gift from the Patricia Bowman Terwilliger Family Foundation Charitable Trust.

Recipient: James C. Cloyd, PharmD, Professor and Director, Epilepsy Research & Education Program, University of Minnesota

Project: Pursuing the development of an intravenous (IV) formulation of topiramate to bring a well-established and effective medication to a new therapeutic indication: neonatal seizures.

Neonatal seizures, for which there are limited therapeutic options, can result in impairment in development, cognition and potentially harmful side effects to the developing brain. Laboratory studies offer compelling evidence that topiramate, an effective anti-epileptic drug with a good safety record in children over two years of age and adults, could substantially improve the management of seizures in newborn infants. An IV formulation would be required to treat neonates because of the need to precisely control drug concentrations, and no IV topiramate currently exists.

Recipient: Gregory A. Worrell, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Mayo Clinic

Project: To develop an electrophysiology platform for multiscale EEG and stimulation experiments.

Dr. Worrell and his research team have developed an electroencephalography (EEG) recording and stimulation approach that facilitates investigation across the range of spatiotemporal scales involved in the generation of seizures. They have recently identified a novel electrographic signature of epileptogenic brain that falls outside the spatiotemporal range of conventional intracranial EEG, and that may represent a precursor of seizure generation. They anticipate that their multiscale EEG and stimulation approach will improve the efficacy of epilepsy surgery and therapeutic brain stimulation.

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