2024 Mechanisms of Epilepsy Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar - Project Summary We are requesting NINDS support for a Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Mechanisms of Epilepsy and Neuronal Synchronization and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) for young investigators to be held August 17-23, 2024 at the Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, Vt. This will be the ninth Epilepsy Gordon Research Conference, and the third Epilepsy Gordon Research Seminar. The overall aim of this GRC is to bring together established and early career researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows for 5 days in an intensive, interactive environment to present and discuss state-of-the-art, unpublished findings related to basic mechanisms of epilepsy, current translational studies and synchronization of neuronal activity in cerebral networks. The conference is designed to involve extensive discussion, and the environment is specifically geared towards fostering interactions between graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and established researchers, and to facilitate intense in-depth discussions and generate collaborations between investigators in the interest of furthering the field. The GRS, a 2-day conference which precedes the GRC at the same site, provides additional opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows to present their work and engage in intensive scientific and career mentoring with established investigators in the field. Another critical goal of this GRC and its associated GRS is to increase the representation of women, racial/ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, and other individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in the epilepsy research workforce by engaging them as attendees and assuring that they are well represented as speakers and discussion leaders at both the GRC and GRS. The specific theme of this GRC is “Multiscale Dynamics in the Emergence of Epilepsies”, and the GRS program theme will be “Transformations in Epilepsy”, both focusing on how basic science discoveries regarding the complex mechanisms that underlie the abnormal, synchronous, electrical discharges in hyperexcitable neuronal networks during seizures can be effectively utilized to develop new therapies for the 70 million people worldwide suffering with epilepsy. The conference will bring together geneticists, molecular biologists, developmental neuroscientists, immunologists, electrophysiologists, clinician-scientists and computational neuroscientists working on the full spectrum of epilepsy research from studies of basic mechanisms through preclinical and human research. Our goals are to disseminate the latest scientific advances, to foster productive new insights and collaborations, to stimulate an interest in epilepsy research among young investigators and to increase the diversity of the epilepsy research workforce, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the delivery of desperately needed new therapies to people with epilepsy.
