Epilepsy

Study reveals neuronal response following chronic activation of an epilepsy- and autism-linked receptor

2020-03-30

First author Dai-Chi Liu alongside Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai.

Group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors (Gp1 mGluRs) are essential for neuroplasticity, neurodevelopment and cognition, but chronically active Gp1 mGluRs has been linked to many pathologic conditions including epilepsy and autism spectrum disorders. To characterize the effects of chronically...

Study: Heterozygous loss of KCNQ2 potassium channel gene induces autism-associated behaviors

2019-08-21

Molecular and integrative physiology professor Hee Jung Chung, her postdoctoral fellow Eung Chang Kim, Psychology professor Justin Rhodes, and their colleagues discovered that heterozygous loss of KCNQ2 potassium channel gene induces autism-associated behaviors in mice including social avoidance,...

Christian Lab: Effects of epilepsy on neural activity in mice fluctuate with reproductive cycle, study finds

2018-10-14

Mice with epilepsy have altered patterns of neuron activity in the portion of the brain that controls the reproductive endocrine system, University of Illinois researchers report in a new study.

Study: Abnormal expression and phosphoinositide regulation of KCNQ/Kv7 channels linked to severe form of genetic epilepsy

2018-08-24

Molecular and integrative physiology professor Hee Jung Chung, postdoctoral fellow Eung Chang Kim, and their colleagues discovered that abnormal expression and phosphoinositide regulation of KCNQ/Kv7 potassium channels underlie neuronal hyperexcitability and injury in early-onset epileptic...

Chung Lab: Prolonged seizure activity causes caspase dependent cleavage and dysfunction of G-protein activated inwardly rectifying potassium channels.

2018-02-03

New findings suggest that novel down-regulation of GIRK channels by caspase-3 may contribute to NMDAR-dependent hippocampal atrophy following chronic epileptic seizures

Assistant Professor Nien-Pei Tsai’s lab has published a study in PLOS Genetics on how a novel epilepsy-associated gene controls neuronal excitability

2017-02-28

Epilepsy is a medical condition characterized by spontaneous seizures due to hyperexcitability of brain neurons. Assistant Professor Nien-Pei Tsai, graduate student Jiuhe Zhu and colleagues uncovered that an insufficient function or mutations of a novel epilepsy-associated gene Nedd4-2 leads to...

Neuronal Excitability in Health and Disease

2016-12-31

A new era has dawned in understanding neuropathological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, and autism spectrum disorders. These disorders, traditionally classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Society, are now being re-...

Technological Breakthroughs Transform Biological Inquiry in Neuroscience

2016-12-31

The infinitely complex workings of the human brain have intrigued researchers for centuries. Our understanding of its workings have been limited, not by our curiosity, but by our tools. Now, with the growth of new molecular biology and genomics approaches, big data, and engineering advances that...

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