Research
Faculty members in the Division of Pediatric Neurology are engaged in a variety of laboratory-based and clinical research programs. These studies are designed to improve our understanding of both the normal function of the developing nervous system and the pathologic processes which underlie many of the disorders encountered by the faculty in their clinical work, and to improve therapies of children with epilepsy and other disabling neurologic disorders.
Clinical epilepsy research programs
(Drs. Kuratani, Novotny, Saneto, Simon, Shurtleff, Warner and Gospe)
A variety of research projects in the Divison focus on pediatric epilepsy and its treatment. Projects include the role of neurosteroids in the treatment of infantile spasms, the management of myoclonic epilepsies of childhood, clinical therapies of medically intractable epilepsy including the ketogenic diet and vagus nerve stimulator, and the long-term outcome of pediatric patients who have undergone epilepsy surgery. The Division of Pediatric Neurology also sponsors a patient registry for individuals with pyridoxine-dependent seizures who reside in the US and Canada.
Basic neuroscience research programs
(Drs. Bamford, Gospe, and Jansen)
Divisional faculty members are engaged in a variety of laboratory-based research studies. These investigations focus on neurodevelopmental mechanisms of brain motor control systems, pathogenesis of brain malformations, the patch-clamp study of ion channel abnormalities in animal models of pediatric epilepsy, and the neurodevelopmental toxicity of second-hand tobacco smoke.