Where should epilepsy research go in the next 10-15 years?
The epilepsies are the second most common serious brain disorder, worldwide; affecting almost 50 to 100 million around the world.
Except for epilepsies due to infections and infestations, there are still no cures for the epilepsies. For this reason, there has been no change in prevalence and incidence of epilepsy.
To develop cures we must unravel the fundamental causes of human epilepsies: (a) Mendelian genes including developmental genes, (b) multiple genes in epistasis, (c) environmental risk factors, such as birth asphyxia-anoxia-hemorrhage, febrile seizures, postnatal head trauma, and infections and (d) brain plasticity/epileptogenesis.
This has been the main goal of the basic mechanisms of epilepsies workshops, symposia and books, which were started in 1966 by Herbert H. Jasper, Arthur A. Ward and A. Pope and have been held every 10 to 15 years.
Essentially these workshops have historically determined the following: Where should epilepsy research go in the next 10-15 years? Our past workshops spearheaded the drive to fuse DNA technology with epilepsy neurosciences, and research in human epilepsy genes and human brain surgical specimens when these were not yet in vogue.
Now it is time once more to set the course for new directions in epilepsy research if prevalence and incidence of epilepsy are to be reduced. The 2009 workshops will change the culture to emphasize drug development based on human epilepsy disease mechanisms and facilitate present efforts in curing and repairing the epilepsies. The BME workshops planned for March 2009 will translate mechanisms of susceptibility and epileptogenicity during epilepsy plasticity and genetics into anti-epilepsy drugs, gene and stem cell therapy, repairs and cures for epilepsies.
The 2009 Workshops on Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies are the first step in the organizing and planning the fourth edition of Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies.
