A Partnership Among Two Leading Non-profit Epilepsy Organizations:Epilepsy Foundation and Epilepsy Therapy Project

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Looking back on the progress in the last generation, it is not surprising that the leaders in epilepsy research believe that a cure may be in sight. For the first time, we can think in terms of "cure"—not just "control."  Now is the time to build on the remarkable progress of the past few years. And we can do it by investing more money in scientific research than we ever have before.

The mission of the New Therapy - Commercialization Grants Program is to drive the development of new therapies for epilepsy, accelerating the advancement of research from the laboratory to the patient. The Foundation funds innovative senior level research projects led by the nation's leading scientists with the potential to discover new treatment options and ultimately a cure.

The New Therapy - Commercialization Grants Program focuses on:

• Research with potential to discover new therapies and a cure for seizure disorders.
• Meaningful grants to senior level scientific and clinical investigators on the brink of new discoveries, working at the nation's leading academic and research institutions, and in industry.
• Innovative cutting edge projects that could lead to breakthrough discoveries.
• Research programs that might not otherwise be funded through traditional sources.
• Projects that encourage collaboration among scientists and industry.
  
  Every day, millions of people lose seconds, minutes or hours of their lives to seizures. These precious moments can never be regained. That's why the New Therapy - Commercialization Grants Program funds research with the potential to discover new treatment options and ultimately a cure. The following are the most recent New Therapy - Commercialization Grants Program awards:

The Epilepsy Therapy Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate ideas into new therapies for people living with epilepsy and seizures.

 

In May 2004, the Epilepsy Therapy Project announced its inaugural translational research grant recipient awards. The three grant recipients were chosen based on the breakthrough nature of each proposal and the potential to advance new treatments based on solid scientific and research foundations. These grants are unique in that they focus on projects demonstrating a clear path from research in the laboratory to new treatments for epilepsy.

Since the announcement of our inaugural awards, the Epilepsy Therapy Project and the Epilepsy Foundation formed the New Therapy Grants Program: a joint venture to fund new, innovative translational research to speed the search for new therapies and a cure for epilepsy. The New Therapy Grants Program focuses strictly on the field of translational epilepsy research and provides resources to accelerate the progress of breakthrough research and new therapies "from the bench to the bedside." The New Therapy Grants Program solicits grant proposals biannually.

In addition to the above, the Epilepsy Therapy Project supports the commercialization of research originating either in the private or the academic sector in order to facilitate the development of new treatments. The Epilepsy Therapy Project has made and continues to make investments in promising start-up companies with an emphasis on finding new treatments for epilepsy and assists in finding additional sources of funding for such companies.

FALL 2012 AWARDS

HE3286 treatment of drug resistant epilepsy

Clarence Ahlem, M.S.

Vice President

Harbor Therapeutics, Inc.

San Diego, CA, United States

HE3286 is an antiinflammatory drug in clinical trials for other diseases, which may provide a novel treatment for epileptic seizures that are resistant to currently approved drugs. Because brain inflammation is linked to epilepsy, we will test HE3286 in epileptic mice to see if it decreases the number or duration of chronic seizures.

SPRING 2012 AWARDS

Jin Hyung Lee, Ph.D.
Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA
Direct network visualization of drug efficacy using ofMRI

Epilepsy is the most serious neurological disease able to affect people across all ages, affecting about 1% of the world's population.  About one-third of people with epilepsy receive little or no benefit from existing treatments; health problems and quality of life can be very poor for this cohort of patients.  New drugs are tested in laboratory models, typically with rat or mouse models of seizures.  These models are not very close to the human disease, and the models often are difficult to use for drug or device development.  Our proposal aims at transforming this process by providing a new technology that can accurately generate diverse models with precise knowledge about which brain area is being affected by the seizures.  The imaging can be done painlessly in live animals.  The new technique causes a targeted region of rat or mouse brain to become excitable by light.  A fiber-optic light source implanted into the brain then can produce seizures on demand.  Drugs or devices can be tested to see if they block the seizure or its spread.  This new technology, called ofMRI will accelerate our search for new drugs and other treatments of epilepsy.
Award:$200,000.00

Mark Lehmkuhle, Ph.D.
Epitel, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT
Wireless EEG Seizure Patch

The Epitel wireless EEG transmitter and data logger is the first example of a device designed to report when (as opposed to where) a seizure occurs in patients with intractable epilepsy.These devices are designed to provide quantitative analyses of seizure frequency and pattern.
Award:$100,000.00

Alexander Rotenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
High Definition Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current for Treatment of Focal

We will test whether a novel form of cathodal transcranial direct current (tDCS), a safe non-invasive method for suppressing seizures in focal status epilepticus (FSE).  Conventional tDCS can reduce cortical excitability, but has not been tested in FSE.  Here, we hypothesize that HD-tDCS can safely reduce seizure burden in FSE patients.
Award:$200,000.00

Wendy Ziai, M.D., M.P.H.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Validation of the ANI-SI Dry EEG Headset in Time-Critical Applications

Many people with seizures are taken to the emergency room where prompt treatment can prevent ongoing seizures from causing permanent brain injury.  Most emergency rooms and hospitals lack the capability for emergency EEG, which may be the only way to confirm if a patient is seizing or has another cause for decreased alertness.  Our study will test a rapid acquisition non-invasive EEG device in the ER and intensive care units to understand how well this device provides information about seizures and other causes of altered mental states compared to standard EEG.  We will train ER and ICU staff to perform EEG at the bedside and will study how best to provide emergency EEG in order to maximize the benefit of this important diagnostic test.
Award:$100,000.00

Previous Award Recipients