Switching Off Gene Prevents Epilepsy in Mice

Neurobiologists in the McNamara lab, partnered with researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, have found that switching off a single gene for a neuronal protein prevents epilepsy in a mouse model of human epilepsy. They said their research offers the hope of drugs that could prevent the alterations in the brain that cause the normal brain to become epileptic. Such drugs could prove far superior to current antiseizure drugs that only inhibit seizures in people who already have epilepsy, rather than preventing its development.

 Wolfgang Liedtke Receives 2004 Klingenstein Award

   Named Robert H. Ebert Clinical Scholar

Center for Translational Neuroscience faculty member Wolfgang Liedtke is among 9 young investigators awarded a Klingenstein Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences for 2004. Out of this group, he is the only recipient to be named as the Robert H. Ebert Clinical Scholar, an honor bestowed on the the most outstanding physician-scientist. Liedtke's research is entitled ""Molecular mechanism of osmotic regulation in the central nervous system"