Epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic brain diseases, affecting over 50 million people worldwide.

One-third of people with epilepsy do not fully respond to treatment, and epilepsy medications can have substantial adverse effects. This gives rise to urgent and unmet healthcare and research needs to create safer and more powerful therapies.

Epilepsy is characterised by spontaneous recurrent seizures, which are caused by sudden abnormal and intense bursts of brain activity. Typically, epilepsy medications try to address this pathophysiological mechanism by reducing brain activity.

However, one-third of people with epilepsy continue to have seizures. Even with optimal medication profiles, the global dampening of brain activity can be damaging to normal brain functions, such as learning and memory.

Epilepsy medications can also be teratogenic – causing harm to the unborn foetus when taken by mothers with epilepsy. The reasons for this are poorly understood. Crucially, healthcare inequalities also exist, where certain groups and demographics of people with epilepsy have better access to the healthcare they need, and subsequently better outcomes.

Our epilepsy research aims to address these critical research challenges.

A translational pipeline

Our research spans the full translational pipeline, all the way from fundamental laboratory-based studies to clinical research and trials. As a result, we are fully equipped to discover new and unknown pathological mechanisms which cause epilepsy, and to design cutting-edge preclinical treatments.

Our pipeline then facilitates the progression of these new discoveries towards the clinic, with our clinical researchers ensuring that healthcare needs are met. To ensure that the needs of people with epilepsy are truly delivered, patient involvement is at the core of our research.

Our research

Developing novel cutting-edge therapies

Our preclinical researchers are designing and developing next generation therapies for epilepsy, which include RNA-targeting and gene therapy strategies.

Understanding cognition in epilepsy

We use both preclinical and human studies to understand why people with epilepsy can experience challenges with cognition, and how we might be able to address this often overlooked aspect of epilepsy.

Preventing harm from prenatal exposure to epilepsy medications

We combine cutting-edge observations from the UK’s only dedicated NHS prenatal exposure clinic with novel findings from cell culture and rodent-based studies. We do this to delineate the risks and harms posed by exposure to epilepsy medications before birth.

Addressing healthcare inequalities

Our clinical research team uses big data approaches to gather large-scale datasets from digital healthcare records to identify where healthcare inequalities exist. We also identify what strategies may be available to enhance healthcare opportunities for under-served demographics.

Delineating the roles of hormones in epilepsy

While hormones have a clear impact on brain function, the roles of hormones in epilepsy and seizures have not yet been well-studied. Our researchers are combining clinical data with laboratory-based studies to delineate this critical mechanism in epilepsy.

Steering group

Investigators