Pediatric Epilepsies Awards, Funded by the Rock the Block for Pediatric Epilepsy Research Award
Edward Cooper, MD, PhD / Baylor College of Medicine
We will develop methods for augmenting KCNQ2 activity in individuals bearing such severe disease-causing mutations, using a combination of cell-based approaches and animal models.
Pediatric Epilepsies Awards, Funded by the Vogelstein Pediatric Epilepsy Award
Timothy Simeone, PhD / Creighton University
Our proposed studies will test investigational drugs, determine relevant functional mechanisms and explore possible strategies of reducing the stringency of the KD, thereby bringing us closer to the ultimate goals of No Seizures/No Side Effects.
Prevention of Acquired Epilepsies Awards
Shelley Russek, PhD / Boston University School of Medicine
We expect to identify lead JAK/STAT inhibitors that can be advanced towards clinical testing to prevent or inhibit development of acquired epilepsy following brain injury.
Prevention of Acquired Epilepsies Awards
Raimondo D’Ambrosio, PhD / University of Washington
We will test these drugs in formal blind and randomized studies to determine their antiepileptogenic potential and route them to phase III clinical trials.
Taking Flight Award
Nigel Jones, PhD / University of Melbourne
This experimental research will investigate an overarching molecular mechanism which mediates these wide-spread changes in protein expression following brain injury, and will determine whether blocking this mechanism can prevent the negative impact these protein changes exert on the brain.
Taking Flight Award
Yevgeny Berdichevsky, PhD / Lehigh University
This project relies on high-throughput bioengineering methods to identify the precise roles that these signaling molecules play in the development of epilepsy.
Taking Flight Award
John Wolf, PhD / University of Pennsylvania
We are therefore evaluating circuitry changes over time after injury in the hippocampus, a vulnerable brain area in both epilepsy and trauma. We hope to understand how these alterations lead to epileptic activity after injury.
SUDEP
Else Tolner, PhD / Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Netherlands
By experimentally modulating the misbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neuronal activity, e.g. using drugs that affect adenosinergic inhibition, we expect to aggravate or ameliorate the SUDEP phenotype in our mice.
SUDEP, Funded by the Christopher Donalty and Kyle Coggins Memorial Award
Gordon Buchanan, MD, PhD / Yale University
We will employ a genetic mouse model of serotonin depletion to evaluate the effects of seizures which occur during different sleep-wake states and circadian times on breathing, heart control, and mortality.
