Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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Medtronic

DBS for drug-resistant epilepsy

Space considerations in print forced us to slim down the feature on deep brain stimulation for drug resistant epilepsy, which appears in the Spring 2015 issue of Emory Medicine. While I encourage you to please read our story profiling playwright Paula Moreland, here are some take-away points:

*Surgery is a viable option for many patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, but not all of them, because the regions of the brain where the seizures start can have important functions. (Look for an upcoming post describing a patient I met for whom the surgical option was helpful.)

*Deep brain stimulation can reduce seizure frequency and improve quality of life for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

*In the large clinical trials on deep brain stimulation for epilepsy that have been run so far (SANTE and RNS), most participants do not see their seizures eliminated. Ms. Moreland is an exception.  Read more

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Quinn Eastman in Neuro Leave a comment