As announced earlier this year, CURE has partnered with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Program to provide support for up to three medical students to conduct mentored research on epilepsy.

CURE is pleased to announce that two students have been chosen as HHMI-CURE Medical Fellows.

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img align="right" class="picRightTopNoBorder" src="http://www.cureepilepsy.org/images/shared/ECoE.jpg" />Description: The Epilepsy Center of Excellence and the Employee Education System are proud to announce a series of audio conferences providing education and training to VA patients and caregivers to improve the health and well-being of Veteran patients with epilepsy and other seizure disorders.

Outcome Objectives:

• Define Epilepsy
• Identify the impact of Epilepsy on memory
• Describe types of memory loss
• Discuss epileptic phases in which memory loss occurs
• Explain the effects of Epilepsy treatment on memory
• Identify interventions which may enhance recall and memory preservation

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Chicago, May 6, 2013 - In a new paper published in Nature Neuroscience, a group of investigators at University of California, San Francisco suggest that an interneuron-based cell transplant holds therapeutic potential in animals with epilepsy, and offers real hope for its potential in humans.

Scott Baraban, PhD, Robert Hunt, PhD and colleagues report that injecting progenitors, or stem cells, of inhibitory neurons into the hippocampus of adult epileptic mice (the region of the brain necessary for learning and memory) reduced the frequency of seizures and restored behavioral deficits in spatial learning.  

This study provides powerful preclinical evidence that stem cell transplantation should continue to be studied as a potential novel therapy for people with epilepsy.

In 2004, CURE granted Dr. Baraban a 1-year, $50,000 award to study whether transplanted stem cells can survive and functionally integrate into the brain of adult mice; in 2007, he was awarded another 1-year grant for $75,000. The goal of this grant was to use the transplantation technique he had validated and see if he could correct abnormal brain activity in a mutant mouse.

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Since announcing the launch of its new Infantile Spasms Research Initiative last month, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) has awarded eight teams of investigators with $1.3 million in grants to proceed with cutting-edge research to find a cure for infantile spasms, a rare childhood epilepsy syndrome. Infantile Spasms (IS) can have profoundly negative long-term developmental and cognitive consequences. Currently available treatments are often ineffective and frequently associated with substantial adverse effects.

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For the first time, a small device implanted in the brain has safely and accurately predicted the onset of seizures in a subset of adults whose epilepsy doesn't respond to drugs, according to a first-in-man study.

But implanting the device was not without risk: 11 device-related adverse events were noted within 4 months of implantation of the intracranial electroencephalographic monitoring system in 15 patients, Mark Cook, MBBS, of St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues wrote in an article published online by Lancet Neurology.

A total of four serious adverse events occurred during 12 months follow-up, but two of those events resolved without further complications.

As for efficacy, after 4 months, 11 of the 15 patients met criteria to move on the actual testing phase, with high likelihood performance estimate sensitivities ranging from 65% to 100%.

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A leading and accomplished researcher in the epilepsy community, Dr. Klitgaard has conducted antiepileptic drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry for more than two decades, most notably contributing to the discovery and development of levetiracetam. Currently, he serves as Vice President and Fellow, Neurosciences Therapeutic Area, UCB, where he has contributed to the research and development of multiple promising new anti-epilepsy drug candidates including PPSI, seletracetam and brivaracetam.

Dr. Klitgaard was selected for the honor by an independent committee of global thought leaders and clinical investigators in epilepsy therapy discovery and development.

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Chicago, IL - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be honored June 13th at the 15th annual Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy dinner at Navy Pier.

Secretary Clinton, who as First Lady was the keynote speaker at the inaugural CURE dinner in 1999, was the driving force behind the first White House Conference on Curing Epilepsy.

"Hillary Clinton is, in many ways, one of the founding mothers of CURE," said Susan Axelrod, CURE's chair.  "Her support gave our movement for more and better research a critical boost right from the start. We are thrilled that she is returning to mark our 15th anniversary and the progress she helped make possible."

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WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hits Chicago on June 13 to be honored by CURE, the epilepsy research foundation — this while a new poll and the start Wednesday of a new chapter in her life are sparking even more speculation about a 2016 White House bid.

CURE — Citizens for Research in Epilepsy — was founded by President Barack Obama’s former top strategist David Axelrod, and his wife, Susan, 15 years ago; their daughter, Lauren, has epilepsy.

Clinton, then the first lady, was the draw at the group’s very first fund-raising dinner and the boost from her star power was “instrumental in getting us started,” Axelrod told me.

The June event will be at the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom and Clinton (a Chicago native: born in Edgewater Hospital, raised in Park Ridge) will deliver remarks for the CURE fund-raiser at a time when guessing about a future presidential run is the top political sport.

Since leaving the State Department, Clinton has been “an extraordinarily in demand speaker and this will be one of her early appearances. We’re thrilled to have her,” Axelrod said.

Axelrod and I spoke on Wednesday — the day after a Gallup Poll showed Clinton’s popularity soaring. Clinton’s 64 percent favorable rating was above Obama’s 55 percent and Vice President Joe Biden’s 45 percent.

Clinton on Wednesday was delivering the first of a series of highly paid speeches for private groups, with the poll and the speeches driving her political futures higher this week.

In a round of interviews before she left State, Clinton said she would be taking some time off to catch up on sleep and get in shape. Instead, she’s working on a memoir and filling her calendar with dates.

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Yevgeny Berdichevsky, an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded a one-year, $100,000 Taking Flight award to support his research into abnormal neural circuitry—a potential cause of epilepsy.

The award is given by CURE, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, a 15-year-old organization that has raised more than $26 million to “lead the way to a cure for the epilepsies.” CURE uses an advisory board of more than 300 scientists to review and fund the most promising, cutting-edge projects.

Berdichevsky is the director of Lehigh’s Neural Engineering Lab, where students join him in studying neurobiology from an engineering perspective. Berdichevsky develops brain tissue cultures that are compatible with microfluidic and microelectrode devices and, using a combination of engineering and molecular approaches, studies the abnormal functions that result in epileptic seizures.

“For decades, researchers believed that epilepsy was somehow connected to imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain,” said Berdichevsky. “As I put aside engineering for a time to learn more about the medical side of things, I began to realize that epilepsy may not just be connected to neurotransmitter levels, but rather a disorder of the neuro-circuitry itself.”

This is a relatively new notion in the field of epilepsy. The long history of medical research in this arena has focused on the idea that chemical imbalances in the brain are the cause. In recent years, however, studies have consistently determined that differences between healthy and epileptic brains may go beyond chemical transmitters..
Berdichevksy embarked upon his own research direction, looking into how an epileptic seizure begins. (A second aspect of his work is seeking a better understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of why seizures even happen.)

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Nevin Runge was 10 months old when she had her first seizure. At 2 1/2 she had such a severe seizure that she was transported by helicopter to a local children's hospital. What followed was a cycle of drugs that often caused more harm than good, remembers her mom, April Runge, of Crystal Lake.

Nevin endured side effects that dulled her emotions or made her nerve endings scream with pain-so much so that she couldn't even bear a hug from her parents.

"We tried another drug that gave her a rash, another gave her tremors and she couldn't even hold a spoon to feed herself," April says. "We were pouring 12 medications down her throat a day."

When an EEG showed Nevin was having up to 500 seizures a day, despite all the medication, her parents decided it was time to try the Ketogenic Diet, a high-fat diet for children with epilepsy created in the 1920s that had fallen out of favor as new epilepsy drugs hit the market. But with drugs failing to be the hoped for cure-all, some doctors have begun using the diet for children with epilepsy again, often with amazing results.

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In his State of the Union address, the President laid out his vision for creating jobs and building a growing, thriving middle class by making a historic investment in research and development.

Today, at a White House event, the President unveiled a bold new research initiative designed to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain. Launched with approximately $100 million in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.

The BRAIN Initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.  These technologies will open new doors to explore how the brain records, processes, uses, stores, and retrieves vast quantities of information, and shed light on the complex links between brain function and behavior.

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In the weeks, months and years after a severe head injury, patients often experience epileptic seizures that are difficult to control. A new study in rats suggests that gently cooling the brain after injury may prevent these seizures.

“Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults, and in many cases the seizures can’t be controlled with medication,” says senior author Matthew Smyth, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery and of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “If we can confirm cooling’s effectiveness in human trials, this approach may give us a safe and relatively simple way to prevent epilepsy in these patients.”

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CURE (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy) Grantee Peter Crino, MD, PhD, has found important new evidence that the Human papillomavirus (HPV) – the most common cause of cervical cancer – may be linked to childhood epilepsy.  This breakthrough discovery may lead to a definable cause and treatment for focal cortical dysplasia type IIB (FCDIIB).  Dr. Crino’s work has significant ramifications for how we think about this type of childhood epilepsy and could lead to new approaches to treatment and prevention.

Specifically, the connection was identified in brain tissue from children who had surgery for FCDIIB, a form of focal malformations of cortical development (FMCD).  Cortical dysplasias are malformations of the brain which occur during development and often associated with severe and difficult to treat epilepsy.  Seizures in children with FMCD are often resistant to treatment with existing drugs.

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Chicago, IL - CURE is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Medical Research Fellows Program. CURE will provide financial support for up to three medical students each year to conduct mentored research on epilepsy.

The goal of HHMI's Medical Research Fellows Program is to increase the number of future physician-scientists and medically-trained researchers by immersing medical, dental, and veterinary students in full-time research early in their professional education. This is done before students make plans for their residency or postgraduate training so that they can consider a career as a physician-scientist, dentist- or veterinarian-scientist. The Fellows gain the research training by engaging in basic, translational or applied biomedical research for a full year at academic or nonprofit institutions.

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TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senators Richard J. Codey and Sandra Bolden Cunningham that would establish a program to better educate medical examiners in the state about sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and improve research of this rare condition, was approved today by the Senate Health, Human Services & Senior Citizens Committee.

“Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy is a rare condition that affects younger or middle-aged people who die without a specific, clear cause. However, we still know relatively little about why certain people are affected,” said Senator Codey (D-Essex, Morris). “Opening the door to additional research on this condition could be the key to finding its cause, and ultimately to saving lives.”

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Researchers at the University of Washington report in an upcoming issue of Annals of Neurology that mild cooling of the injured brain prevents the later development of epileptic seizures.

Epilepsy can either be genetic or acquired due to brain injury. Traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults, and is often difficult to manage with available antiepileptic drugs. The mechanisms leading to the onset of epileptic seizures after brain injury are not known and there is currently no treatment to cure it, prevent it, or even limit its severity.

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Neurologist Andrew Wilner, MD, discusses the first Partners Against Mortality in Epilepsy (PAME) conference with conference co-chairs Jeffrey Buchholter, MD, PhD, Pediatric Neurologist and Epileptologist at the Barrow Neurologic Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and Gardiner Lapham, RN, MPH, Member of the Board of Directors of CURE: Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy. The meeting took place June 21-24, 2012, in Evanston, Illinois, and brought together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians, families, and others interested in advancing efforts aimed at preventing sudden death in people with epilepsy.

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Researchers led by John R. Huguenard, PhD, at Stanford University learned that post-thrombotic cortical stroke resulted in neuronal hyperexcitability in the thalamus, which is distant from the cortex but connected to it. To see if this process could be interrupted in real time, they developed an automated implantable system that emitted 594-nm light to the affected area as soon as seizure activity began.

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Despite the prevalence of epilepsy among stroke sufferers, researchers have had little idea why the two are connected. Because strokes often involve the injury or death of a region of the cortex -- the outer shell of the brain -- scientists had postulated that the function of the areas around the brain might be disrupted by the injury, leading to seizures.

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There are over three million Americans with epilepsy, and for nearly one-third of them, current treatments are ineffective. Amongst the epilepsies that are difficult to treat are temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and viral-induced epilepsy. This is in part because the development of these types of epilepsies is not well understood.

Evidence suggests that astrocytes – long dismissed by scientists as passive support cells for neurons – undergo dramatic changes when TLE and viral-induced epilepsies are triggered in animal models. White and Wilcox will research how astrocyte dynamics influence the development of TLE and infection-induced epilepsies.

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In mice, added amino acid reduced associated epilepsy, eased neurobehavioral symptom

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego and Yale University schools of medicine, have identified a form of autism with epilepsy that may potentially be treatable with a common nutritional supplement.

The findings are published in the September 6, 2012 online issue of Science.

Roughly one-quarter of patients with autism also suffer from epilepsy, a brain disorder characterized by repeated seizures or convulsions over time. The causes of the epilepsy are multiple and largely unknown. Using a technique called exome sequencing, the UC San Diego and Yale scientists found that a gene mutation present in some patients with autism speeds up metabolism of certain amino acids. These patients also suffer from epileptic seizures. The discovery may help physicians diagnose this particular form of autism earlier and treat sooner.

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For years, people with seizure disorders have been stigmatized. Even today, epilepsy remains widely misunderstood, and the disease can particularly difficult for children, and for their parents. What services and treatments are available? What about research for causes and cures?

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Paul Barney had his first seizure four days after his fourth birthday. By the time he was 10, his mom worried that if they didn’t get the seizures under control soon, he might lose IQ points along with his ready smile.

When Brian Manning, 11, had a seizure on the school playground – instead of in his bed as usual – his parents knew it was time for drastic action. He’d already had brain surgery once, but doctors said he might need five or six more operations. Or he could have one, to completely remove the right half of his brain.

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Dr. Michael J. Kubek, Ph.D., who was awarded this grant, has been doing research on thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) for the past three decades. The Army funded international research collaboration on suicidal ideation is the latest addition to his research.

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Epilepsy affects some 2.7 million Americans—more than Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) combined. More than half of patients can achieve seizure control with treatment, yet almost a third of people with epilepsy have a refractory form of the disease that does not respond well to existing antiepileptic drugs. Nor are these patients typically helped by the one implanted device—Cyberonics' Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS)—that has had U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of epilepsy since 1997.

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In November 2008, when he was just 6, William Moller had his first epileptic seizure, during a reading class at school. For about 20 seconds, he simply froze in place, as if someone had pressed a pause button. He could not respond to his teacher.

This is known as an absence seizure, and over the next year William, now 10, who lives with his family in Brooklyn, went from having one or two a day to suffering constant seizures. Not all were absence seizures; others were frightening tonic-clonics, also known as grand mals, during which he lost consciousness and convulsed.

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A fatty diet that helps control epileptic seizures may do so by triggering a chemical change in the brain, a discovery that could lead to new treatments, according to a Harvard University study.

The diet may force a protein to switch the brain’s fuel to fat byproducts called ketones from its preferred energy, glucose, according to a study in genetically manipulated mice in the journal Neuron. Making the brain operate on ketones is known to shut down overexcited neurons that cause seizures.

This so-called ketogenic diet is used by epilepsy patients who aren’t helped by seizure-reducing drugs. The patients are only allowed a saltine cracker’s worth of carbohydrates daily, said Gary Yellen, a study author. That’s hard to do, and new treatments based on the diet’s effects in the body may lead to better control of seizures, he said.

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On June 15, guests at this year's Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy fund-raiser will enjoy a musical evening with a legendary singer-songwriter. Carole King will serenade partygoers with chart-topping selections from her musical career including “It's Too Late” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” as part of the evening in celebration of CURE’s progress in fighting epilepsy.

With a goal of raising $1 million, the uplifting soiree will aid in funding research to cure epilepsy and other neurological diseases.

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The day's first seizure usually comes at 9:10 a.m.

Sarah Fradkin has it down to the minute, and she's powerless to stop it.

"I can't control it," Fradkin says. "I just go through the day, every day, and I just go with it."

As do about three million other Americans, 11-year-old Sarah has epilepsy. She was diagnosed with the disease after suffering her first seizure the day before she started first grade.

Though medication has helped others with epilepsy live a normal life, doctors have been unable to control Sarah's seizures. She's tried medicine, diets and even multiple brain surgeries in an effort to find a solution, but the daily episodes -- some of which can last up to three hours -- continue, costing her all-too-many precious moments of her otherwise active and ebullient youth.

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Surgery for epilepsy is usually seen as a last resort for patients when medications do not work, and it is often delayed for many years after the failure of drug treatment. Now a randomized, controlled trial suggests that surgery as soon as possible after the failure of two antiepileptic drugs is a significantly better approach than continued medical care.

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Comics about illness tend to be family-centred: e.g. Sarah Leavitt's Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother, and Me, or Brian Fies's Mom's Cancer. Many of them track illness within an intimate group of those affected either directly or indirectly. One of the best-known long-form comics treating the subject of living with epilepsy is David B.'s Epileptic, originally published in six volumes in French under the title L'Ascension du Haut Mal (the rise of the high evil).

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Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today appointed Carmita Vaughan, CEO of Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) to the Illinois Medical District Commission.

Preckwinkle cited Vaughan’s strong managerial experience, her familiarity with medical issues and healthcare, and her deep-rooted commitment to service as her main reasons for her selection for this important position.

“Ms. Vaughan’s dedication to medical research, public health and compassionate service will serve her well on the IMDC,” said President Preckwinkle.  “She will be a strong voice for improving the delivery of health care in our communities and continuing to strengthen the Illinois Medical District’s role in Cook County’s economy.”

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New York, February 9, 2012 – A groundbreaking study published in Elsevier's Epilepsy & Behavior provides evidence in mouse model that drugs known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs; one category of antidepressants) may reduce the risk of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).

SUDEP is estimated to be the cause of death in up to 17% of patients with epilepsy who die from their condition. Evidence for cardiac and respiratory causes of SUDEP has been presented, but no effective prevention of SUDEP has yet been developed.

Several studies have proposed that DBA mouse models of seizure-induced sudden death that are due to respiratory arrest may be useful models for respiratory-related causes of SUDEP. In these models, the generalized convulsive seizure is induced by acoustic stimuli, and the incidence of death after the seizure can be greatly reduced or prevented by providing rapid respiratory support.

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Billboard
January 17, 2012

When aspiring singer Scott Mannis was 17 years old, he began periodically losing feeling in the left side of his body, specifically in his leg. It took three years for doctors to diagnose his condition as a rare form of epilepsy, whose symptoms can be minimized, but for which there is no cure.

But Mannis, now a 24-year-old astrophysics student at Columbia University, found a temporary reprieve through music. "By 2008, the seizures got bad enough that I wasn't able to walk without falling," he tells Billboard. "The only time I didn't have them was when I was singing."

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Irvine, Calif., June 27, 2011 – UC Irvine and French researchers have identified a central switch responsible for the transformation of healthy brain cells into epileptic ones, opening the way to both treat and prevent temporal lobe epilepsy.

Epilepsy affects 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population, and TLE is the most common form of the disorder in adults. Among adult neurologic conditions, only migraine headaches are more prevalent. TLE is resistant to treatment in 30 percent of cases.

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For questions, please contact the CURE office, 312.255.1801, or email info@cureepilepsy.org.

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