Modeling focal cortical dysplasia using cortical organoids: looking for new epilepsy therapies

• Grant number: 18/02967-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Iscia Teresinha Lopes Cendes
• Grantee: Simoni Helena Avansini
• Supervisor: Alysson Renato Muotri
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/13220-0 - Modeling focal cortical dysplasia using cortical organoids: looking for new epilepsy therapies, BP.PD

Abstract

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a malformation of cortical development and its main clinical manifestation is intractable epilepsy. Despite the considerable progress in diagnosis and surgical therapy, treatment of these patients remains a challenge mainly due to surgical inaccessibility in eloquent cortex areas and the absence of etiology-specific anti-epileptic-drugs (AED). Furthermore, it is unclear how abnormal cortical development can contribute to severe seizure generation in cortical dysplastic tissue. Our main goal in this collaborative research is to establish an in vitro human epilepsy-associated model of type II FCD using cortical organoids to recapitulate human cortical development and to speed-up screening and discovery of new candidate drugs for the treatment of this severely epileptogenic cortical malformation, besides to contribute to better understand the nature of the intrinsic epileptogenicity displayed by FCD lesions.