SUDEP is a devastating outcome for some people with epilepsy, and the most common cause of death among people with treatment-resistant epilepsy [1]. Despite significant research into the cause of SUDEP [2], including an implication of cardiorespiratory dysfunction [1,3], the precise series of biological events ultimately leading to death is not clear.

With the help of a CURE Epilepsy Taking Flight Award, Dr. Ian Wenker and colleagues, working in the laboratory of Dr. Manoj Patel at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, sought to better understand these events. Specifically, they sought to determine the order in which physiological processes occur, the circumstances that lead to death, and what could be done during the seizure to prevent death [4]. The researchers used mouse models of epilepsy wherein seizures were induced either genetically or chemically. They measured breathing and monitored electrical activity from the brain and heart for both fatal and nonfatal seizures.