On World Epilepsy Day, our public lecture featured an insightful discussion about severe childhood epilepsy, and the hopeful way forward with medical research.
Severe childhood epilepsy can affect infants and children and is characterised by seizures that are often accompanied by developmental and cognitive impairment, and movement disorders.
Some children’s seizures don’t respond to anti-seizure medications and their conditions require long-term care. There are still many questions to answer and more treatment options are desperately needed.
Speakers included The Florey’s Professor Christopher Reid and Associate Professor Snezana Maljevic, paediatric neurologist Dr Katherine Howell, Stuart Place from SLC6A1 Kids and Mel Anderson from PURA Foundation Australia.
The lecture recording is available below and on our YouTube channel.
The Florey, with clinical and industry partners, is committed to making a difference. You can support our vital research by giving today.
- Learn more about The Florey’s research into severe childhood epilepsy
- Find out more about our Epilepsy Mission
Meet our speakers:
- Professor Chris Reid – Head of the Epilepsy Mission and the Neurophysiology of Excitable Networks Laboratory at The Florey.
- Associate Professor Snezana Maljevic – Molecular neuroscientist and Head of the Epilepsy Functional Genomics Group at The Florey.
- Dr Katherine Howell – Paediatric neurologist and epileptologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and a Clinician-Scientist Fellow and the Neuroscience Group Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Her clinical and research work focuses on severe, early-life epilepsies.
- Stuart Place – Founder and volunteer director of SLC6A1 Kids. Stuart’s four-year-old son, Will, was born with a rare neurogenetic disorder, known as SLC6A1. Motivated to find a cure and make a difference, Stuart took on a remarkable fundraising challenge. Through cycling 15,451km over 50 days, he raised more than $350,000 for The Florey and raised awareness of this life-changing condition.
- Mel Anderson – founder of PURA Foundation, a charity raising awareness, supporting research and providing education about the developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, PURA syndrome. In 2014, Mel’s daughter was the first Australian to be diagnosed with PURA syndrome and since then her passion and dedication to connect families and raise awareness have led her to The Florey.
