Every decade the Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies (BME) Workshops provide an opportunity for basic research scientists in epilepsy to assess where the field of epilepsy has been, what it has accomplished and where it should go. Twelve years have passed and it is once more time to stimulate a new intellectual ferment in understanding genetic, molecular, and cellular and systems mechanisms of epilepsies. The fourth BME Workshops will include 14 workshops held over four days in the spring of 2009. The principal investigator and co-chairs are responsible for the organization and editing of the Workshops and resulting publication. For the first time, these Workshops demand translation of epilepsy disease mechanisms into molecular epilepsy therapeutics. The specific objectives are to: (1) Accelerate completion of the genome of common epilepsies and rare/orphan epilepsies and unravel their disease producing mechanisms. (2) Stimulate translation of disease mechanisms of epilepsies into molecular mechanisms of therapeutics that can lead to genomics-based drugs against epileptogenesis, individualized pharmacogenomics, gene and iRNA therapy and stem cell therapy and other approaches that constitute cures and repairs for the epilepsies. (3) Recruit new talent and optimize available talent into this field by promoting the involvement of young investigators, women, minorities and persons with disabilities. The general objectives of the fourth BME Workshops remain the same as for the previous three Workshops-Symposia - To define current and new areas that should be navigated in epilepsy research, decide how to propel epilepsy research forwards, and establish strategies for this decade and the next. The new Workshops expand upon that underlying purpose and sets as a goal - To stimulate the development of cures and repairs for the epilepsies and thereby decrease the prevalence and incidence rates of this disease. To accomplish objectives, the Workshops will strive to: (1) Collect and synthesize modern knowledge and identify gaps of knowledge in initiation, spread and arrest of seizures, including the role of gap junctions and glia. (2) Develop a consensus on the initial changes in the malleable and plastic brain that lead to excitability/susceptibility and ultimately to epileptogenesis after environmental insults (e.g., prolonged febrile seizures, one or repeated seizures, birth anoxia-asphyxia hemorrhage, postnatal head trauma, neurocysticercosis, a stroke, and aging brains). What has microarray expression studies added to understanding epilepsy? (3) Accelerate completion of the epilepsies genome, identify more Mendelian epilepsy genes and Non-Mendelian genes in epistases responsible for common epilepsies, and unravel their disease producing mechanisms, (4) Change the culture of development of drugs against the epilepsies and facilitate present efforts in curing and repairing the epilepsies, and (5) Recruit new and diverse talent to this endeavor.
Every decade, basic research scientists in epilepsy should assess where the field has been, what it has accomplished and where it should go. The purpose of the Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies (BME) Workshops is to stimulate a new intellectual ferment in our understanding of the genetic, molecular, cellular, and systems mechanisms of the epilepsies. The 2009 BME Workshops now demand translation of epilepsy disease mechanisms into molecular epilepsy therapeutics and focuses during two days on epilepsy genes and disease mechanisms and molecular epilepsy therapeutics. The Workshops objectives are to (1) Accelerate completion of the genome of common and rare/orphan epilepsies and unravel their disease producing mechanisms. (2) Stimulate translation of disease mechanisms of epilepsies into molecular mechanisms of therapeutics that can lead to genomics-based drugs against epileptogenesis, individualized pharmacogenomics, gene and iRNA therapy and stem cell therapy and other approaches that constitute cures and repairs for the epilepsies. (3) Recruit new talent and optimize available and new talent by promoting the involvement of young investigators, women, minorities and persons with disabilities. The public health problem of the epilepsies is significant in the USA (about 2.5 million persons) and worldwide (50-100 million persons) and still there are no cures and treatments that put a dent in the stable prevalence and incident rates of the epilepsies.
| Noebels, Jeffrey L; Avoli, Massimo; Rogawski, Michael et al. (2010) ""Jasper's Basic Mechanisms of the Epilepsies"" Workshop. Epilepsia 51 Suppl 5:1-5 |
