Biologist wins $4.1 million for epilepsy research

NIU Biological Sciences Professor Anne T. Berg has received a $4.1 million grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her groundbreaking epilepsy research.

The NIH Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded NIU with $797,000 for the coming year in support of Berg's ongoing long-term study of epilepsy. The federal agency is recommending another $3.3 million in continued funding for the project through 2006.

"This project is unique in its duration, scope and detail," Berg said. "By combining rigorous epidemiological methods with the top-notch clinical expertise in human epilepsy, we believe this study will provide essential information that can be used to improve the treatment and management of epilepsy."

Berg leads a large team of scientists from Yale University and the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Nader Ebrahimi, an NIU professor in mathematical sciences, also is a collaborator on the project. Since 1993, the researchers have been monitoring the progress of more than 600 children with epilepsy throughout Connecticut. NIH has funded the project since its inception.

About one out of every 50 Americans at some point in their lives suffers from epilepsy, a disorder characterized by seizures that are caused by abnormal brain activity. Children have a particularly high risk of epilepsy. One of the major breakthroughs of the past 30 years has been to recognize that epilepsy actually represents dozens of distinct disorders, each with a different cause and, in theory, each with a different prognosis. Scientists constantly are learning more about the different forms of epilepsy and their different outcomes.

The first nine years of the Connecticut study focused on identification of specific types of epilepsy and their seizure outcomes.

Typically, epilepsy is treatable with medication. However, 10 to 25 percent of patients develop medically refractory epilepsy, unresponsive to current medications.

"Beyond seizure outcomes, epilepsy is still very much a mystery," Berg said. "It can be a serious, chronic illness that is extremely debilitating and hard on both children and their families. The disorder can affect a child's social and educational development, and families may experience tremendous costs, both financially and emotionally."

Over the next five years, the continued NIH funding will allow the research team to expand the scope of its project to study in detail the cognitive, behavioral, educational and social outcomes of participants in the study.

"We know that people with epilepsy tend to have difficulties in these areas," Berg said. "We don't know whether this is due to medications, persistent seizures, the specific type of epilepsy they have or other factors. Designing appropriate interventions hinges on accurately characterizing the nature, extent and cause of any problem. Our study is designed to do just that."

The study also has funds to offer all participants a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. This will allow a standardized assessment of anatomical brain abnormalities that may be responsible for the epilepsy.

"There also is an interesting mystery in epilepsy that we may be able to help resolve," Berg said. "Over half of adults who have temporal lobe epilepsy, a particular form of epilepsy that is so intractable that it is often treated surgically, first began having seizures during childhood.

"The MRIs of these adults demonstrate a characteristic lesion in their brains called hippocampal sclerosis. This is a lesion that seems to develop over time and is not present at onset. We will be in a position to identify those characteristics that, at initial diagnosis, may be associated with the development of this apparently very specific form of epilepsy. This could, in several years, open the door to preventing this form of epilepsy from becoming intractable."

Berg, who started her epilepsy research program while at Yale University, underscored the superb resources available at NIU for researchers seeking and obtaining external funding. In particular, she cited the support of NIU's Office of Sponsored Projects, which assists faculty in writing proposals and finding funding sources, and the Office of Grants Fiscal Administration, which manages the financial aspects of awards.

"Both have been extraordinarily helpful," she said. "I appreciate their assistance and attention over the several years I've been doing this work here."