Perturbations in Epilepsy – Interventions
12th and 13th of June 2024
Edgbaston Park Hotel, University of Birmingham Campus, Birmingham
Event description
‘Perturbations in Epilepsy’ is an annual hot-topic workshop series organized by the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine (SMQB) at the University of Birmingham, UK.
The theme of this year’s event is ‘Intervention as a Perturbation’.
Epilepsy is a chronic and complex neurological disorder affecting about 65 million people around the world. It manifests as pathological electrical activity in the brain, and may lead to recurrent, unprovoked seizures, affecting the quality of life.
Currently, Anti-Epileptic Drugs (AEDs) remain the primary treatment for epilepsy. However, about 30% of the patients do not respond to these drugs. Brain stimulation and surgery are offered to some of these patients as alternative therapy.
Through this workshop, we are bringing together key stakeholders such as clinicians, experimentalists, academics, and patient representatives to explore how medication and stimulation affect the brain. The workshop will facilitate knowledge exchange and new collaborations to accelerate research into the treatment of epilepsy.
Programme
The workshop is a two-day event, with three thematic sessions. In the first session, we will explore how medication and surgery affect the brain, including biomarkers that track the effectiveness of these interventions.
In the second session, we will explore how different forms of stimulation such as Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) affect the brain. Day 1 will end with a drinks reception and poster session to facilitate interactions between academia, clinicians, and industry.
In the third session, we will explore how animal experiments can be used to understand the effect of various interventions on the brain.
The workshop benefits from having world-leading researchers to chair the thematic sessions:
- Professor Clare Anderson (University of Birmingham, UK)
- Dr Alfredo Gonzalez-Sulser (University of Edinburgh, UK)
- Dr Wessel Woldman (University of Birmingham, UK)
The keynote speakers in the workshop include:
- Mr Michael Carter (NHS Bristol, UK)
- Professor Carola Haas (University of Freiburg, Germany)
- Dr Gareth Morris (University of Manchester)
- Dr Mangor Pedersen (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand)
- Dr Joseph Raimondo (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
- Dr Shanika Samarasekera (University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, UK)
- Dr Rachel Smith (University of Alabama in Birmingham, USA)
- Professor Maeike Zijlmans (University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands)
- Representatives from LivaNova
Download the programme [22kb]
Poster Session
There will be a poster session at the end of Day 1. Participants are encouraged to submit an abstract to take part in the poster session and showcase their research. Interested participants can send the abstract to the organisers at smqb@contacts.bham.ac.uk by no later than May 10, 2024. Please include ‘Abstract submission’ on the subject line. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words and can include at most one figure. A prize will be awarded for the best poster.
Venue
The workshop will take place at the Edgbaston Park Hotel located within the University of Birmingham Campus on the 12th and 13th of June 2024. It will be taking place as a hybrid event, with state-of-the-art video conferencing facilities provided to ensure seamless interaction between attendees joining in-person and online.
Registration
The registration fee for the workshop is as follows,
Academics - £120
Students - £50
Industry - £300
Single session - £50
Register here
Important deadlines for the registration process are:
- Submission of Abstracts for the Poster Session - May 20, 2024
- Confirmation of selected abstracts - May 23, 2024
- Last date for Registration - May 25, 2024
Contact
For queries, please contact the organisers at smqb@contacts.bham.ac.uk