Taking Flight Award
Hongtao Ma, PhD / Weill Cornell Medical College
The CURE-funded research will focus on the relationship between the electrical aspect of seizure onset and spread of the seizures to other brain areas, as well as the changes in blood flow in the brain associated with seizures; both in the seizure focus and the surrounding normal brain.
Multidisciplinary Award, Funded by Lazard Capital Markets
Manisha Patel, PhD / University of Colorado
The goal of Drs. Patel and Roberts’s study is to determine the role of gamma-ketoaldehydes in cognitive impairment associated with chronic epilepsy.
Innovator Award
Quoc-Thang Nguyen, PhD / NeurAccel Biosciences
Dr. Nguyen and his collaborator Dr. Fouquet will use biophotonics technology to measure levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brains of experimental animals undergoing seizures to better understand the involvement of neurotransmitters in epilepsy and to establish specific neurotransmitters as biomarkers that could predict the onset of seizures.
Challenge Award, Funded by the Julie's Hope Award
Brian Litt, MD / University of Pennsylvania
With funding from CURE, they will further develop these devices and test them first in animal models and then in individuals with medically resistant epilepsy in pursuit of CURE’s mission to achieve “no seizures and no side effects.”
Taking Flight Award
Paulette McRae, PhD / Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The goal of Dr. McRae’s project is to understand how changes in the environment surrounding cells in the hippocampus contribute to learning and memory problems in individuals with TLE.
Innovator Award
Robert Gross, MD, PhD / Emory University
Dr. Gross will test whether electrical stimulation of an important nerve pathway, the septohippocampal system, which connects the frontal lobe to the temporal lobe, can both control seizures and improve memory.
SUDEP, Funded by the Henry Lapham Memorial Award
Daniel K. Mulkey, PhD / University of Connecticut
Drs. Mulkey and Tzingounis hypothesize that KCNQ channels are required for proper control of chemoreceptor activity (i.e., neurons that drive breathing).
SUDEP, Funded by the Christopher Donalty and Kyle Coggins Memorial Award
Jack Parent, MD / University of Michigan
Drs. Parent and Isom hypothesize that SCN1A mutations increase SUDEP risk by causing heart rhythm disturbances.
Taking Flight Award
Teresa Ravizza, PhD / Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
Using in vivo MRI and MRS imaging techniques combined with EEG analysis and behavioral testing in animals, Dr. Ravizza will evaluate whether blood-brain barrier damage and glia activation after brain injury predict the development of spontaneous seizures and cognitive dysfunction.
