Duke Neurobiology welcomes Dimitri Kullmann, PhD, Professor of Neurology
at University College of London's Queen Square Institute of Neurology.
For connection info to his Zoom seminar "Pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy: from mechanisms to gene therapy", email d.shipman@duke.edu.
Abstract: Focal (partial-onset) epilepsy often responds poorly to anti-seizure drugs and represents a major unmet need. Of the advanced therapies that have been proposed, gene therapy is arguably closest to the clinic. I shall describe several strategies that have been pursued in my laboratory to achieve constitutive, on-demand or closed-loop suppression of seizure activity in rodent epilepsy models. Some of these strategies build on insights into how inhibitory restraint breaks down in and around seizure foci. I will also consider the path to the first clinical trial scheduled to start in early 2022.