Abby Collier, Ph.D – Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, University of British Columbia – 2016
Dr. Abby Collier
Dr. Abbey Collier and her team were awarded $10 000 for their project titled ‘A Pharmacogenomic Study of Interactions Between SCN1A and UGT Variants Affecting Lamotrigine Efficacy and Toxicity in Children with Dravet’s Syndrome’. It is not well understood why lamotrigine worsens seizures in Dravet Syndrome and whether this might be due to drug toxicity by metabolism or by channel interactions. This project can define the developmental drug handling of lamotrigine (LTG) and interactions between disease etiology (SCN1A) and drug handling (UGT) that may be resolved by altered drug dosing. The advantage is that children are not exposed to potentially sub-therapeutic or toxic doses of drugs but human-specific data can be gained. The outcome from this research will be to provide evidence-based dosing guidelines (dosages, dose intervals) for expanded practice with LTG to better serve the Dravet community.