Dr Fiona LeBeau (fiona.lebeau@ncl.ac.uk)
Prof Andrew Jackson (andrew.jackson@ncl.ac.uk)
Epilepsy is common, and while many people with the condition are helped by anti-epileptic medication, around a third continue to experience many seizures. With these difficult “medically-refractory” cases, new technologies may yet help; one such approach is the use of optogenetic techniques and brain-machine-interfaces to control neuronal activity. This project builds upon the CANDO project, which aimed to combine gene therapy and optoelectronic implants to control seizure activity using optogenetics. We were able to control cortical network activity using light, but there are still many important questions to answer, such as which opsin and what form of feedback control to use for different types of epilepsy, and how is this affected by the sleep-wake cycle.
This studentship will provide training in a range of rodent in vitro and in vivo models of seizure activity, and will also study activity patterns in human brain tissue resected for treatment of intractable epilepsy. Overall, this is a novel and exciting project that will provide an excellent opportunity for the student to develop a range of technical and computational skills, as well as knowledge about the causes and treatment of epilepsy.