Jeanne Paz’s lab aims to improve the outcome for patients with stroke, brain injuries, and epilepsy by studying these disorders in animal models and identifying potential targets for new therapeutic interventions. A signature approach in her lab is optogenetics, which allows her team to disrupt the function of specific brain cells in live animals. Using this approach, the group identified a brain region called the thalamus as a choke point for various forms of epilepsy—and a promising target for future therapies. Current research includes the role of the immune system in regulating neural circuit function and understanding how to boost the brain’s ability to recover after injury to prevent debilitating consequences such as epilepsy and neurocognitive deficits.
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Paz’s team showed they could stop epileptic seizures in mice in real time and with no side effects using optogenetics to control specific brain cells known as thalamocortical neurons. This work identified thalamocortical neurons as potential targets in the development of effective therapies against post-stroke seizures.
Optogenetics could also be used to identify the cells and circuits responsible for other forms of epilepsy or for neurological and cognitive disorders, leading to targeted therapeutics against these diseases as well.
Recent work by the team shows a link between chronic brain inflammation and the development of post-injury epilepsy, suggesting that certain anti-inflammatory drugs could be used in the treatment of this form of epilepsy.
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