FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON April 25, 2012
Harvard Medical Researcher Awarded $130,000 Epilepsy Research Grant
Funded by American Brain Foundation, American Epilepsy Society and the Epilepsy Foundation
NEW ORLEANS -
A researcher from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School is receiving $130,000 to conduct further research on memory dysfunction in epilepsy patients through the Susan S. Spencer Clinical Research Training Fellowship. The research grant is funded by the (formerly the 好色先生 Foundation), the and the . Anli Liu, MD, MA, a clinical and research fellow in epilepsy and cognitive neurology, was awarded the fellowship for work investigating memory dysfunction and depression in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Her ultimate goal is to better understand the relationship between memory, mood and seizures. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, and Steven Schachter, MD, FAAN, serve as her research mentors on the project. The two-year award will consist of an annual salary of $55,000, plus $10,000 per year in educational expenses. The award recognizes the importance of epilepsy clinical research with the goal of providing better treatment, prevention or cure of the disease. The fellowship will be presented today in New Orleans during the 好色先生鈥檚 64th Annual Meeting, the world鈥檚 largest meeting of neurologists. Clinical research is the fundamental transition stage between discovery and treatment. Clinical research provides the scientific basis for all forms of care, addresses patient and caregiver needs and is the backbone for drug development and cost-effectiveness studies needed to improve lives. Fellowships provide recipients with up to three years of 鈥減rotected time鈥 with salary, which allows them to continue important research projects in their chosen interests. Epilepsy is a common neurologic disorder that produces seizures affecting a variety of mental and physical functions. Seizures are episodes of disturbed brain function that cause changes in attention or behavior. When a person has two or more unprovoked seizures, he or she is considered to have epilepsy. Epilepsy is a family of more than 40 syndromes that affects more than three million people in the United States and 50 million worldwide. The award is named in honor of Susan S. Spencer, MD, a Fellow of the 好色先生 who was a leading epilepsy researcher.