NEC SEMINAR
Presenter: Cedric Levy
Advisor: Dominique Durand
Abstract:
Epilepsy affects approximately 65 million people worldwide, with symptoms ranging from seizures and memory loss to depression and, in severe cases, death. Focal epilepsy—the most common form—originates in a specific, overactive region of the brain known as the focal zone.The Durand lab has previously demonstrated that seizures and spontaneous spikes can spread from this zone through electric field coupling and in response developed strategies to disrupt both the initiation and propagation of this activity. This talk will present a novel approach that uses perforated, highly conductive films to short-circuit the electric fields responsible for seizure spread.
Preliminary in-vitro experiments show that CNTFs can effectively block seizure propagation in the hippocampus. These films are composed of either stainless steel or pure carbon, are extremely thin (20 - 200 µm), permeable to fluids, and require no active electronics. Upcoming in-vivo studies will help assess their potential for clinical translation