Campaign Brief
Transformative Research Priorities that span across all of the Epilepsy Research Benchmark Areas:
1. Generate novel models of epileptogenesis and the development of epilepsy-associated co-morbidities that will meaningfully measure human epilepsy outcome measures.
2. Reconsider our understanding of epileptogenesis including the progression of epilepsy from the acute to chronic phase and the different cellular and molecular factors that are involved.
3. Solve the unsolved genetic epilepsies—push beyond traditional genetic approaches to investigate noncoding DNA and to include the investigation of epigenetic influences on epilepsy.
4. Develop functioning instruments and biomarkers for assessing epilepsy-related mortality to prevent epilepsy-associated deaths.
5. Leave no group unstudied-ensure research focuses on specific populations of people affected by epilepsy, including children, people with epilepsy with intellectual disability, autism, psychiatric comorbidities, women (including during pregnancy), underrepresented communities (e.g., People of Color, Indigenous People, etc.), and the elderly.
6. Identify shared mechanisms and pathways between of epilepsy and its comorbidities leveraging genetic, epigenetic, autoimmune, and infectious processes.
7. Advance the development/validation of biomarkers (e.g., biochemical, genetic, electrophysiological, imaging) for the progression, therapy resistance (to pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies), resolution, and comorbidity risk of the epilepsies.
8. Make precision medicine more than a buzz word: develop novel genetic, molecular, immunological, and pharmacological approaches to the treatment of epilepsy, seizures, and other relevant outcomes.
9. Focus on translational models with real human relevance to study and treat genetics epilepsies: model epilepsy, intellectual disability, and other features and target all of these life-affecting features when developing therapies.
10. Uncover the network interaction nature of the epilepsies including comorbidities (i.e., how sleep, psychiatric changes, and seizures interact).
11. Do you have a new transformation research priority to add? All ideas are welcome!