Michigan Research Grant Recipients
The following are some researchers from Michigan who have received funding from the Epilepsy Foundation for their research:
- Lori L Isom, Ph.D, University of Michigan - $75,000 award from a partnership of the Epilepsy Foundation, the American Epilepsy Society, and Parents Against Childhood Epilepsy to study the Role of Sodium Channel SCN1B in Pediatric Epilepsy. The results of the research will contribute to understanding of normal brain functions as well as how mutations in the gene lead to human pediatric epilepsy.
- Daniel Tice Barkmeister, Wayne State University - $20,000 pre-doctoral research training fellowship to study Translating Human Gene Expression Profiles Of Interictal Spiking Into A Rat Model (Jeffrey A. Loeb, MD, Ph.D, Preceptor). One of the major challenges in developing effective seizure medications comes from animal models of disease that fail to mimic the human disorder. The closer the animal model is to the human disorder, the more likely a new drug developed using that model will actually work in patients with epilepsy. Funding for this project will help determine if this new model can identify new drugs to reduce seizures or even 'cure' epilepsy before it even gets started.
- Michele Kron, University of Michigan - $20,000 pre-doctoral research training fellowship to study the Role of Adult Neurogenesis in Hippocampal Remodeling and Hyperexcitablity during Pilocarpine-Induced Epileptogenesis, (Jack M. Parent, MD Preceptor). This study seeks to examine changes in the brain that lead to experimental mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, specifically those at the cellular level that may involve neural stem cells. Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common type of intractable epilepsy in young adults.