Epilepsy in a Dish – Finding cures for epilepsy using a stem cell-based disease models

The Stem Cell Laboratory in the Department of Neuroscience are investigating new treatments for a class of patients that do not respond to mainstream anti-epileptic drugs (AED). Our laboratory has created patient-derived neurons for the purpose of creating an in vitro disease model to test the efficacy of these potentially life-changing novel AEDs. We are able to generate cortical neurons by rapid differentiation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells created from healthy and epileptic individuals. These cortical neurons are capable of firing action potentials and are able to form functional synapses in in vitro culture. In this Honours project we will investigate the potential therapeutic role of current and novel AEDs including neuropeptide Y (NPY) which has been shown to have strong anti-epileptic properties in rodent models. We will assess the ability of these AEDs to restore normative behavior to patient-derived cortical neural cultures. The successful outcomes of this treatment will be assessed by single cell patch clamping, and for changes in network behavior through multi electrode array (MEA) analysis. In addition, this project will require the techniques of stem cell-based in vitro cell culture, immunohistochemistry (including western blot and immunofluorescence) and gene expression analysis using real time PCR.