Competitive $1.7 million grant from National Institutes of Health to UC Riverside will support investigation of hyperexcitability in the brain. Ten percent of Americans experience a seizure in their lifetime, with three million diagnosed with epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder. Anticonvulsant medications can mitigate the hyperactivity of neurons that leads to seizures, but not without severe side effects, including cognitive impairment.
Now, researchers Todd Fiacco, Ph.D., and Devin Binder, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of California, Riverside will spend the next five years studying the causes of neuronal hyperexcitability with the goal of developing more effective treatments for brain disorders like epilepsy.
