Public Private Partnership
From our $10M PTE Initiative to our more recent astrocyte biomarker work, CURE Epilepsy has partnered closely with the government to accelerate progress on traumatic brain injuries for veterans and civilians alike by improving understanding of biological underpinnings.
invested in 63 acquired epilepsy-focused research grants
Highlights of Our PTE Initiative
- Using its team science expertise and drawing on 2015 Department of Defense (DoD) funding, CURE Epilepsy brought together six multi-center, multi-investigator teams to study diverse aspects of PTE. The goal of the ongoing initiative was to lay the groundwork for the development of future preventative therapies.
- The initiative has resulted in 25 scientific abstracts, 20 publications, and 10 conference presentations.
- Collectively, PTE Initiative teams have developed and characterized several different animal models of PTE, enhanced our understanding of the biological underpinnings of PTE, and identified several potential risk factors and potential biomarkers for PTE that could reveal who will develop PTE after TBI.
“The PTE Initiative provided funding for a high-risk, high-impact study of a potential mechanism for PTE. Our findings have provided key preliminary data that have substantially “de-risked” the project. So now it is low-risk, high-impact!”
Kevin Staley, MD
Mass General
International Conferences on Post-Traumatic Epilepsy
In May 2024, CURE Epilepsy partnered with the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research to host the International Conference on Post-Traumatic Epilepsy (IC-PTE) in Milan, Italy. The event brought together a diverse community of people with epilepsy—Jack Somers among them—and researchers from around the world to discuss scientific advances, explore challenges, and drive the creation of promising new treatments and preventative therapies. IC-PTE is traditionally held every other year, alternating between North America and Europe. This event brings together leading clinical and preclinical experts in TBI and epilepsy to focus on PTE with the goal of determining an actionable plan to design clinical trials aimed at developing preventative therapies and treatments for PTE.
A consensus roadmap for post-traumatic epilepsy: Clinical biomarkers, research priorities, policy barriers, and pathways to interventional trials
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PTE Astrocyte Biomarker Initiative (PABI)
CURE Epilepsy’s new PABI project builds off the astrocyte findings in the original PTE Initiative. Funded by the US Department of Defense’s Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) Epilepsy Research Program, this new initiative aims to track how astrocytes change in the brain after TBI and before PTE onset. A collaborative effort across multiple scientific teams, PABI will look for signs from astrocytes that predict PTE in mouse models. One team will also study archived blood samples collected from people at various time points after a TBI, to track changes in measures of inflammation. This may reveal a distinctive “signature” that discriminates those who develop PTE from those who do not.
CURE Epilepsy Discovery on PTE Progress
Post-Traumatic Epilepsy (PTE): Stealth Mode No More
Other Areas of Focus
In addition to funding epilepsy research more broadly through investigator-initiated grants, CURE Epilepsy has a deep, sustained focus on several key areas of the field where we believe we can make a big impact over time.
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