2012/2013 Junior Investigator Award Recipients

AES, in collaboration with the Epilepsy Foundation, the Lennox & Lombroso Trust, the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation, Sunovion and Eisai, Inc. awarded the following research and training awards for the 2012/2013 academic year:

• Pre-doctoral Fellowships
• Post-doctoral Fellowships
• Susan Spencer Clinical Research Training
• Lennox & Lombroso Predoctoral Fellowship

Pre-Doctoral Fellowships

• Christopher Dengler
  University of Pennsylvania
  "Circuit Contributions of Adult and Seizure-Induced Neurogenesis"
• Sarah Guadiana
  University of Florida
  "Contribution of Cilia Defects to Neuronal Activity in Developing Cortex"
• Larisa Kruger
  University of Michigan
  "Physiological Consequence of an Epilepsy Mutation in the VGSC Beta 1 Subunit"
• Nealen Laxpati
  Emory University
  "Optogenetic Medial Septal Neuromodulation to Control Hippocampal Seizures"
• Emma Soldner
  University of Minnesota
  "Seizures Beget Seizures: Role of Blood-brain Barrier Leakage in Epilepsy"
• Xinjun Wang
  University of Wyoming
  "The Role of BNDF in the Maturation of Axo-axonal Synapses"
• Baouyen Tran
  Baylor College of Medicine
  "Characterizing KCNQ2 Mutations in Severe Neonatal Encephalopathy"

Post-Doctoral Fellowships

• Sarah Brandt, Ph.D.
  Washington University
  "Defining ECoG Resting State Networks Associated with Focal Epilepsy"
• Jeff Boychuk, M.D.
  University of Kentucky
  "A Role for Interleukin-6 in Epileptogenesis"
• Matthew Weston, Ph.D.
  Baylor College of Medicine
  "mTOR, Epilepsy and Synaptic Transmission"
• David Auerbach, Ph.D. (funded with Eisai, Inc.)
  University of Michigan
  "Sudden Cardiac Death in a Severe From of Childhood Epilepsy: Mice and Men"
• Zhihong Chen, Ph.D. (funded with Sunovion)
  Cleveland Clinic Foundation
  "The Pathogenic Role fo Activated Microglia in Epilepsy"
• Geogina MacKenzie, Ph.D.
  Tufts University
  "Investigating the Mechanism of Stress Induced Seizure Susceptibility"
• Lei Sun, Ph.D.
  University of California, Irvine
  "Screening for Seizure Modifiers in a Drosophila Knock-in Model of SMEI"

Susan Spencer Clinical Research Training

• Anli Liu, M.D., M.A.
  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

Lennox & Lombroso Predoctoral Fellowship

• Michael Hester
  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  "mTOR regulation of hippocampal granule cell pathology in epilepsy"