Canada’s Leadership in Epilepsy Research

Through generous contributions from donors, corporate sponsors, and fervent fundraisers, in the last 10 years Epilepsy Canada has raised over $4.3 million to invest in research. More specifically, Epilepsy Canada has funded research at Queen’s University, SickKids Hospital, University of Toronto, McGill University, BC Epilepsy Society, QE ll Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Toronto Western Hospital, University of British Columbia, Toronto Western Research Institute, CHU Sainte-Justine, University of Waterloo, IWK Health Centre Dalhousie University and the University of Western Ontario.

The research Epilepsy Canada has funded includes a variety of studies including, but not limited to:

• Developing a course of seizure management for a significant number of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

• Studying the relationship between seizures and brain development in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

•  Using Advanced imaging to predict medically-intractable epilepsy

• Developing seizure forecasting algorithms which would predict seizures before they occur

• Personalized medicine for patients with intractable (medication resistant) epilepsy. Using stem cells from tissue obtained from affected patients his goal is to create “cerebral organoids” that would be used to rapidly screen for effective treatments.

• Identifying genes that are responsible for brain malformations that result in epilepsy

• A study is focusing on a common cause of pediatric epilepsy, the mutation of a single sodium channel gene.