Research Updates
Landmark Clinical Trial for Childhood Absence Epilepsy Fills Large Information Gap
CURE would like to call attention to a landmark clinical trial, which has established an initial drug therapy for childhood absence epilepsy—the most common form of childhood epilepsy. The study—lead by Tracy A. Glauser, MD, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center—is the largest pediatric epilepsy clinical trial ever funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
To read more: Read the entire article online
Former CURE SAB Member to Study Drug Therapy to Minimize Death and Disability from Traumatic Brain Injury
A clinical trial of a new neuroprotective drug for people with traumatic brain injuries will be offered to patients seen in UC Davis Medical Center’s level-1 trauma center, through an $8 million grant funded by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program of the U.S. Department of Defense.
To read more: Read the entire article online
CURE Grantee and Former Scientific Advisory Board Member Recipients of Prestigious AES Awards
Drs. Annamaria Vezzani and Thomas Sutula—a CURE grantee and former Scientific Advisory Board member, respectively—are the recipients of two prestigious epilepsy awards, announced at the American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, held in Boston in December 2009.
To read more: Read the entire article online
CURE Grantees and Reviewer Receive Funding Through PRMRP
Dr. Jaideep Kapur and Drs. Audrey and Amy Yee have received research awards through the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program, in the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, Department of Defense. Dr. Kapur has served as a CURE reviewer, and Drs. Yee and Yee are 2009 CURE research award recipients.
To read more: Read the entire article online
Major Breakthrough from CURE Researchers
In a major breakthrough for epilepsy research, drugs known as TGF-beta blockers have been found to prevent epilepsy after brain injury in rats. CURE grantees, Daniela Kaufer, PhD (University of California, Berkeley) and Alon Friedman, MD, PhD (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)discovered that they could prevent the brain changes leading to epilepsy by treating the animals with a drug that blocks transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) receptors. If the findings are confirmed in humans, the TGF-beta blockers may prevent many cases of epilepsy in accident victims and soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are incurring traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in unprecedented numbers.
To read more: Read the entire article online
Significant Finding in Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP)
CURE Scientific Advisory Board member Jeffrey Noebels, MD, PhD and CURE research grant recipient Alica Goldman, MD, PhD, and collaborators have found that the most common gene for a syndrome associated with abnormal heart rhythms and sudden death triggers epileptic seizures and could explain Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy.
To read more about this exciting new discovery: Click here
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