About research
- Molecular biology of epilepsy workshop
Our understanding of which molecules and cell
processes are responsible for epilepsy has
advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years.
Linking these advances to clinical symptoms
is not so easily done. In September 1998,
the Epilepsy Research Foundation (now Epilepsy
Research UK) brought together clinicians concerned
with the causes of epilepsy and basic scientists
working on genetic, molecular and developmental
aspects of epilepsy, both in humans and in
animal models, to discuss the areas where
their work overlaps.
Abnormal genes have been identified as
causing four types of human epilepsy. These
genetic abnormalities cause errors in the
development of receptor sites and ion channels
which are involved in chemical signalling
in the brain. These changes make the nerve
cells able to become too excited, triggering
seizures.
Although the types of epilepsy directly
linked to gene abnormalities are uncommon,
the faulty receptor sites or ion channels
are implicated in many other types of epilepsy,
including common types.
The two-day workshop, held at Worcester
College, Oxford, was attended by fourteen
speakers and sixteen invited discussants,
including both international experts and
younger researchers in the field.
The proceedings were published as a special
issue of Epilepsy Research in September
1999. We were grateful to GlaxoWellcome
for their support of the workshop.
Meldrum BS, Gardiner RM. The use of animal
models for elucidating the molecular basis
of epilepsy. Epilepsy Res. 1999;36(2-3):89-258.
