Out now in @NatureMedicine, research co-led with @rmjamiolkowski where we found an understudied region of the brain called the fasciola cinereum (FC) is highly active during seizures and an intervenable target in both mice and humans with epilepsy. (1/8)

Incredibly honored and thankful for this critical support from @klingensteinorg !.

RT @aliceyting: scFLARE leads to a change in clinical practice in humans?  🤯. When we made our calcium integrator scFLARE in 2020 we hoped….

RT @rmjamiolkowski: Excited to share our latest work from @SolteszLab @VivekBuchMD co-led with @QuynhA_Nguyen, now online @NatureMedicine.….

On the basic science side, my lab @VandyPharm and @VanderbiltBrain is looking for motivated and talented researchers to help us uncover further secrets of the FC and solve other mysteries of the brain. Please reach out if interested in joining us! (8/8).

Excited to see the impact this research will have in the clinic and to have these results replicated in more patients in the future! Huge thanks to @SolteszLab and the other co-authors @J_S_Farrell @bodhisaxva David Hartmann @jnirsch! (7/8).

Laser ablation of the majority of FC in this patient was able to reduce their seizure frequency by an astounding 83%! We hope these results implore clinicians to consider the FC as a viable target for seizure localization and possible intervention for intractable epilepsy. (6/8).

One of these patients had already undergone a prior amygdalohippocampectomy, which ablated his anterior mesial temporal structures. However, the FC in humans is located in the posterior hippocampal tail, an area not usually considered a target for seizure localization. (5/8).

Extending these insights to humans, in collaboration with @VivekBuchMD we implanted 6 epilepsy patients with sEEG electrodes in FC and surprisingly found that for all patients the majority of their seizures had FC involvement. (4/8).

Together with Ryan, we were able to confirm the involvement of FC neurons during interictal and ictal activity, and show that optogenetic closed-loop inhibition of FC neurons was able to significantly decrease seizure duration in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. (3/8).

The impetus for this work came from use of the molecular tool scFLARE developed by Mateo Sanchez in the lab of @aliceyting, which we previously showed could be utilized to label seizure active neurons. I noticed that the FC region was robustly labeled with this approach. (2/8).

Excited to announce my new position as Assistant Professor @VandyPharm and @VanderbiltBrain! Currently hiring at all levels: