Source: eurekalert.org | Repost Duerson Fund 5/18/2022 –
Approximately 1 in 50 people who suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) will develop post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE)—with the risk of PTE significantly higher in people with severe TBI. PTE is characterized by recurring seizures that begin a week or more after the brain injury, and there is currently no way to identify those at risk for developing PTE or to prevent its onset.
Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, led by Aristea Galanopoulou, M.D., Ph.D., have received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to look for novel biomarkers that predict a person’s risk for developing PTE and for treatments to prevent the condition. Dr. Galanopoulou will lead an international, multicenter collaboration with faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Southern California; Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; University of Minnesota; and Monash University in Australia, a team established by EpiBioS4Rx, a previous PTE research “center without walls” grant. The investigators will first conduct preclinical studies, with the goal of future clinical trials to evaluate promising diagnostics and interventions.