AN OXFORD University professor has been awarded a grant to research what happens in the brain during a seizure.
Professor Peter Oliver received the £20,000 funding from Epilepsy Research UK as part of 12 grants handed out by the charity to researchers for 2018
The11-month pilot will allow Professor Oliver to look into a fundamental aspect common to all disorders characterised by seizures.
Errors in the communication between cells in the brain, called neurons, are thought to cause the seizure events that occur in epilepsy.
Recent research has discovered that a protein known to cause epilepsy in families interacts with the transmission of information between neurons.
The aim of Professor Oliver’s research is to begin to determine how this protein plays a role in the function of these neurons.
There are currently more than 600,000 people nationwide with a diagnosis of epilepsy - meaning approximately 1 in 100.
Visit epilepsyresearch.org.uk
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