Peter Ruben, Ph.D – Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
– 2016
Dr. Peter Ruben
Dr. Peter Ruben and his team were awarded $20 000 for their project studying “Triggers for Dravet-Associated Seizures”. The mechanisms causing temperature sensitivity in Dravet syndrome are not well understood. The overall goal is to understand the role that environmental triggers, such as temperature, play in seizure generation. The present aims are to elucidate whether altered sensitivity to febrile temperatures is intrinsic to all Dravet variant NaV1.1 channels, and – if so – how this may be expected to alter the firing patterns of individual neurons expressing these mutants. The specific aim of this present proposal is to extend our past and present findings to an in vivo model of Dravet febrile seizure generation.