CURE Epilepsy’s Impact: Investing in Early-Stage Research Leads to Critical Advancements

• Nearly 20 years ago, Peter Carlen, MD received a one-year grant from CURE Epilepsy that served as a catalyst for his research into seizure detection and electrical neurostimulation. One of the companies Dr. Carlen established continues the work in seizure detection and is currently building on his lab’s recent identification of a biomarker for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).
• For more than 20 years, through investing in paradigm-shifting ideas, CURE Epilepsy has enabled scientists to discover insights essential for advancing the understanding of epilepsy and moving us closer to a cure.

Dr. Carlen began his career as a general neurologist at the University of Toronto. He founded the Epilepsy Program at the Toronto Western Hospital 25 years ago and is now one of its staff epileptologists. With his 2002 funding from CURE Epilepsy, he collaborated with mathematician and engineer Dr. Berj Bardakjian and a student with a background in physics, Dr. Houman Khosravani, to investigate the promise of computation and engineering techniques to understand epileptic networks and to ultimately develop the ability to disrupt them.

The work facilitated by his CURE Epilepsy-funded grant has contributed substantially to prediction and treatment of epilepsy.