The overall mission of the Epilepsy Multiplatform Variant Prediction (EpiMVP) Administrative Core is to oversee and coordinate the activities of the EpiMVP Center Without Walls (CWOW), including the work of the Gene and Variant Curation Core (GVCC), the Human Epilepsy Tools Core (HETC), the three Scientific Projects, as well as center-wide matters related to the program charter, publications, data sharing, communications with the scientific and lay communities, and ethical/legal issues. The Administrative Core?s Principal Investigators (PIs)/Directors, Drs. Lori Isom and Jack Parent, who have a successful track record of working together, coordinating groups of investigators, conducting multiple projects simultaneously, and disseminating research findings, will provide overall leadership to EpiMVP throughout the five years of the proposed Center. Drs. Isom and Parent will also serve as Co-Chairs of the EpiMVP Steering Committee, which will be composed of all EpiMVP PIs and Core Directors (Dr. Ross, Dr. Wang, Dr. Carvill, and Dr. Uhler) and have responsibility for the strategic direction and operational activities of the entire Center. The EpiMVP Program, centered at the University of MI and reaching out to the University of CA-San Francisco, Northwestern University, the University of WA, and Weill Cornell Medicine, is composed of international experts in genetics, clinical care, computational biology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and electrophysiology who are at the forefront of epilepsy research with broad expertise in the study of gene variants linked to developmental and epileptic encephalopathies and other genetic epilepsies. Long-term, on-going collaborations are in place between many investigators. The addition of three investigators to the epilepsy field, Dr. Ross, Dr. Schnell, and Dr. Bai, strengthens the CWOW and brings a fresh perspective to known problems in epilepsy research. Strong institutional support, provided to the group by the University of MI Medical School and the University of MI Departments of Pharmacology and Neurology in the form of administrative infrastructure, planning grant funding, and trainee support, further insures the success of this proposal. The EpiMVP Administrative Core seeks to accomplish the following Milestones: 1. To provide leadership and expertise for the planning, development, coordination, and overall administration of EpiMVP. 2. To oversee reporting of CWOW activities within its membership and to NINDS and to disseminate information regarding EpiMVP findings to a broad constituency, from scientists to clinicians to patients and families. 3. To help train and mentor the next generation of scientists to advance the understanding and treatment of genetic epilepsies. The expected outcomes of the EpiMVP Administrative Core are: 1) Leadership of an efficient, productive, and collaborative multi-institutional CWOW; 2) Effective communication between EpiMVP members and NINDS, as well as rapid dissemination of results to the research community, healthcare professionals, and patients/families, 3) Training and mentoring of the next generation of epilepsy researchers.
