Epilepsy Research
 

Epilepsy is a serious and common chronic neurologic disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, which are caused by abnormal synchronized neuronal discharges. As many as 6 million people in Europe currently have active epilepsy. This has major implications not only for health, but also for independent living, education and employment, mobility, and personal relationships.

Our research goal is to understand the mechanisms that lead to the development of epilepsy after brain injury (e.g., caused by traumatic brain injury, status epilepticus), and identify novel treatment targets to stop the development of epilepsy or to modify the disease process in such a way that epilepsy that develops is milder and easier to treat.

We have an extensive program of collaboration with other groups inside the A.I. Virtanen Institute, Kuopio University Hospital, and neuroscientists in the USA, Italy, Austria, UK, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In addition we collaborate with multinational pharmaceutical companies to develop new treatments for epilepsy.