October 10, 2018

Epilepsy Foundation Awards $3 Million Grant To International Team Of Scientists To Improve Seizure Forecasting

The Epilepsy Foundation announced it has awarded a $3 million grant to an international team of scientists, researchers and interoperability experts to evaluate biosensors that can track an individual’s physiology, behavior, and environment to improve seizure prediction.

Team members from King’s College London, Mayo Clinic, and Seer Medical/The University of Melbourne will evaluate biosensors in a range of commercially available devices. The team will recruit, and collect data from, people with epilepsy who have received an implanted device that can measure brain activity — such as electroencephalogram (EEG) devices — to better understand changes in the body that induce or allow for seizure activity. The team receiving the grant was selected following a seven-month-long, peer-reviewed process. The ultimate goal of this award is to definitively assess the types of measurements that are needed for a reliable seizure forecasting prototype device.

The Epilepsy Foundation’s Epilepsy Innovation Institute launched the My Seizure Gauge Challenge in October 2017following a workshop that discussed and assessed the state of the science behind seizure forecasting. During the collaborative workshop, clinicians, engineers, data scientists, and pharma/device companies reviewed feedback from people living with epilepsy and their families and decided to take on seizure prediction as their first innovation project.

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