Investigators in NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center lead basic and translational research programs to better understand how epilepsy affects the brain, enabling us to develop novel methods of diagnosis and treatment.

Basic Research

Our basic science research program leverages our strengths in human cognition as well as our collaborations with leading molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscientists to better understand how epilepsy affects single cells and networks of neurons, and ultimately impacts human behavior.

The multidisciplinary intracranial EEG program is advancing our understanding of human brain physiology and improving the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. Patients with drug-resistant epilepsy undergoing evaluation for surgical treatments of their epilepsy may temporarily get electrodes placed directly into the brain to map the origins of their seizures by recording the electrical activity from nerve cells. While we await seizures, patients volunteer to participate in studies to understand the mechanisms that underpin complex human cognitive functions like speech and language, memory, attention, and even consciousness. Our researchers collaborate with biomedical engineers and computer scientists to develop AI algorithms to decode this brain activity and to design tools to restore functions like speech in patients with neurological injuries.

In patients who end up having their seizure focus surgically removed, collaborating neuroscientists can study that tissue using advanced cell imaging and recording techniques and molecular tools to better understand the mechanisms of epilepsy at the cell level.

Some patients with epilepsy cannot have their seizure focus removed and instead are treated with implanted brain stimulators, which can also record brain activity in the home environment. This provides our researchers with the opportunity to study brain activity in more natural environments to better understand how the brain encodes memories in the real world.

Translational Research

Our translational research program merges basic science and clinical expertise to develop novel diagnostic tools and therapies for people with epilepsy.

The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center partners with NYU Langone’s Neuroscience Institute and Department of Medicine for our Genetics and Precision Medicine Research Initiative. This research effort is studying molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying epilepsy and seizures and developing precision therapies, including gene-editing strategies to correct disease-causing mutations.

In our neurotechnology and neuromodulation research, we partner with engineers from academia and industry to improve devices for epilepsy diagnosis and treatment. We are developing safer and more effective electrodes for epilepsy surgery and studying how high-resolution neural signals can more accurately map seizure networks. We study how the brain weaves and stores memories, and how these processes are disrupted in some epilepsy patients. In collaboration with the Neuroscience Institute, we study how neurostimulation—transcranial electrical stimulation, acoustic stimulation, and direct electrical stimulation—may help restore and enhance key rhythms to support memory function in epilepsy. Our faculty are also exploring the use of novel seizure detection devices, such as the Epitel Epilog EEG patch, to reduce the risk of seizure-related injury and death.

Our neuroimaging program investigates how brain structure and function are affected in epilepsy. Advanced imaging methods, including 7T MRI, help disentangle local and network-level brain changes. Advanced statistical modeling techniques have identified subtle brain changes in epilepsy that were previously undiagnosed. We also study the use of novel imaging methodologies including TSPO-PET MRI to characterize neuroinflammation driven by autoimmune epilepsy.

Learn more about our active translational studies.