Taking Flight Award
Jennifer Gelinas, MD, PhD / Columbia University Medical Center
Dr. Gelinas and her team will leverage new technology to acquire high-resolution “maps” of neural networks in animals with progressive focal epilepsy.
Post-Traumatic Epilepsy Initiative
Harald Sontheimer, PhD / Virginia Tech
Dr. Harald Sontheimer and his team have identified the need for additional animal models of post-traumatic epilepsy, and plan to utilize both a new mouse model of post-traumatic epilepsy alongside an established model to investigate the ways in which traumatic brain injury leads to post-traumatic epilepsy.
Post-Traumatic Epilepsy Initiative
Victoria E. Johnson, MBChB, PhD / University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Victoria Johnson and her team will characterize the relationship between these changes and the development of post-traumatic epilepsy, utilizing tissue from humans with traumatic brain injury as well as multiple unique models of traumatic brain injury.
Post-Traumatic Epilepsy Initiative
Kevin Staley, MD / Harvard Medical School
Dr. Kevin Staley and his team hypothesize that changes to the extracellular matrix, the brain’s neuronal support system, can alter the balance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission and contribute to the development of difficult-to-treat epilepsy after traumatic brain injury.
Post-Traumatic Epilepsy Initiative
Kevin Wang, PhD / University of Florida
The team will study changes that occur in brain activity and chemical and molecular processes within important epilepsy-related areas of the brain, comparing animals that develop post-traumatic epilepsy to those that do not.
Vivian I. Teichberg, PhD / Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Dr. Teichberg is investigating the scope and efficacy of vaccination against a particular AMPA receptor in epilepsy.
Graham Goddard Young Investigator Award
Karin Borges, PhD / Emory University
In a mouse model of epilepsy, Dr. Borges will identify and evaluate genes involved in the brain’s own protective mechanisms for their ability to inhibit the development of epilepsy.
The Maggie Loeffel Award
Gregory A. Worrell, MD, PhD / The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Dr. Worrell’s study of the usefulness of high-frequency epileptiform oscillations to more accurately locate the area of the brain involved in the seizure, is a unique collaboration combining the neuroengineering strength of the University of Pennsylvania with Mayo Clinic’s large surgical epilepsy practice, translating engineering advances into clinical practice.
Scott C. Baraban, PhD / University of California, San Francisco
The aim of Dr. Baraban’s project is to investigate whether stem cells transplanted into the central nervous system of mice can alter synaptic function in the brain, change the overall level of excitability in the brain and act as a “cure” for patients with uncontrollable epilepsy.
