Early Career Awardees

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Congratulations to the 2022 Early Career Fellowship Awardees!

AES is proud to support 29 early career scientists in 2022 with $1.3 million in research grants and fellowships.

With support from philanthropic donations, the Sergievsky Fund for Epilepsy Health Equity and Diversity, the Lennox and Lombroso Fund for Research and Training, and the Susan S. Spencer Fund for Clinical Research and Education, AES supports trainees and newly independent investigators working across the full spectrum of epilepsy research, from basic science to translational and clinical research.

Sergievsky Award for Epilepsy Health Equity and Diversity

Senyene Hunter, MD, PhD

Long-Read Sequencing in a Diverse Cohort with Epileptic Encephalopathy

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Mentors: Erin Heinzen PharmD, PhD; Jonathan Berg MD, PhD; Suzette LaRoche MD, FACNS, FAAN; and Laura Villa Torres PhD, MSPH

Alain Zingraff Lekoubou Looti, MD

Brain health and post-stroke seizures prediction in a diverse US population

Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine

Mentor: Vernon Chinchilli, PhD

Junior Investigator Awards

Ana Arenivas, PhD, MPH

Neuropyschological Functioning in Pediatric Epilepsy Associated with MCDs

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Jeffrey Calhoun, PhD

Resolving missense variants of uncertain significance in TSC2

Northwestern University, Chicago Campus

Philip Iffland, PhD

Functional validation of Nprl2 variants

University of Maryland, Baltimore

AES/EF Junior Investigator Award (funded in full by the Epilepsy Foundation)

Julie Janecek, PhD

Long-term cognitive outcome after temporal lobectomy: A longitudinal study

The Medical College of Wisconsin

Research and Training Fellowship for Clinicians

Samantha Allen, MD

Understanding Medically Refractory Epilepsy in Neurocysticercosis

University of California, San Francisco

Mentors: Robert Knowlton, MD, MSPH; Hector Garcia, MD, PhD; and Seth O’Neal, MD, MPH

Thomas Foutz, MD, PhD

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Neurostimulation in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Washington University School of Medicine

Mentor: Michael Wong, MD, PhD

Julien Hebert, MDCM, MSc, FRCPC

Acute Symptomatic Seizures Secondary to Autoimmune Encephalitis

Columbia University

Mentors: Kiran Thakar, MD; and Hyumni Choi, MD

Jacob Pellinen, MD

Developing a Seizure Screening Tool for Non-Specialists

University of Colorado Denver

Mentor: Kelly Knupp, MD

Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation (PERF)/AES Research Training Fellowship for Clinicians (funded at 50% by PERF)

Hayley Loblein, PhD

Social Determinants of Health in Pediatric Epilepsy

Children’s National Medical Center

Mentor: Madison Berl, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships

Fatemeh Bahari, PhD

Dissecting role of pannexin1 channels in a model of acute neonatal seizures

Massachusetts General Hospital

Mentor: Kevin Staley, MD

Kathryn Brewer, PhD

Epilepsy in mTORopathies: The role of astrocytes

University of California, Berkeley

Mentor: Helen Bateup, PhD

Aniv Brukner, PhD

Rescue of STXBP1 encephalopathies with 4-phenylbutyrate in a mouse model

Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Mentor: Jacqueline Burre, PhD

Michelle Guignet, PhD

Novel Therapeutic Approaches for the Prevention of Drug Resistant Epilepsy

University of Washington

Mentor: H. Steve White, PhD

Joo Hyun Kim, PhD

Disease mechanism and therapy of STXBP1-encephalopathy

Baylor College of Medicine

Mentor: Mingshan Xue, PhD

Nishant Sinha, PhD

Guiding epilepsy surgery by combining non-invasive brain imaging and iEEG

University of Pennsylvania

Mentors: Kathryn Davis, MD, MS; and Brian Litt, MD

Danielle Tapp, PhD

Regulation of interneuron function by mTOR signaling

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Mentor: Steve Danzer, PhD

Solveig Vieluf, PhD

Developing a seizure likelihood biomarker from autonomic longitudinal data

Boston Children’s Hospital

Mentor: Tobias Loddenkemper, MD; Bo Zhang, PhD; and William Bosl, PhD

Predoctoral Research Fellowships

Daniel Chu, BA

Characterizing Connectome MRI Abnormalities in TLE Patients

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Mentor: Vivek Prabhakaran, MD, PhD

Yu (Susie) Feng, BS

Progression of Hippocampal Desynchronization in Chronically Epileptic Mice

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Mentor: Tristan Shuman, PhD

Andrew Huang, BS

Cellular Mediators of Dentate Pattern Separation in Epilepsy

University of California, Riverside

Mentor: Viji Santhakumar, PhD

Harvey Huang, BAS

Stimulation-induced responses in intracranial EEG reflect excitability

Mayo Clinic, Rochester

Mentors: Dora Hermes, PhD; and Greg Worrell, MD, PhD

Kelsey Paulhus, MS

Cortico-limbic contribution to cardiorespiratory dysfunction and SUDEP risk

Southern Methodist University

Mentor: Edward Glasscock, PhD

Samantha Reed, BS

The Effect of Status Epilepticus on Extracellular Vesicles

Emory University

Mentor: Andrew Escayg, PhD

AES and Wishes for Elliott/International SCN8A Alliance Predoctoral Research Fellowship (co-funded at 15% by WFE)

Christy LaFlamme, BS

Investigating aberrant methylation in DEE

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Mentor: Heather Mefford, MD, PhD

Epilepsy Study Consortium Mini-grants

Wesley Kerr, MD, PhD

Response-adaptive time-to-event designs in clinical trials for epilepsy

University of Michigan

Mentor: William Stacey, MD, PhD

Laura Kirkpatrick, MD

Lamotrigine and estrogen-containing contraception in people with epilepsy

University of Pittsburgh

Mentor: Page Pennell, MD

Susan S. Spencer, MD, Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Epilepsy

Regan Lemley, MD

The Role of the Microbiome in Drug Resistant Epilepsy

Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School

Mentor: Howard Weiner, MD

The following awards were given to the 29 early career scientists above:

Junior Investigator Awards: $50,000 for newly independent investigators to support direct costs of research plus one year of AES membership
Research Training Fellowship for Clinicians: Mentored support for clinical fellows or junior clinical faculty with up to $50,000 for stipend and travel support plus one year of AES membership
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships: Mentored research fellowships with up to $50,000 for stipend and travel support plus one year of AES membership
Predoctoral Research Fellowships: Mentored research fellowships with up to $30,000 for stipend and travel support plus one year of AES membership
Epilepsy Study Consortium Mini-grants: Funded by ESC and administered by AES; up to $22,000 for fellows to undertake a mentored project on anti-epileptic drug therapy during their fellowship training
Susan S. Spencer, MD, Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Epilepsy, 2022-2024: Funded by AES, Epilepsy Foundation, and American Brain Foundation in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology
Sergievsky Award for Epilepsy Health Equity and Diversity: $150,000 over two years awarded to physicians and scientists who identify as members of groups historically underrepresented in science and medicine and/or who are researching issues that affect medically underserved individuals with epilepsy or seizures ore related aspects of health equity

The American Epilepsy Society would like to thank Gemma Carvill, PhD and William Stacey, MD, PhD, co-chairs of the AES Early Career Grants Committee, and the long list of volunteer reviewers for their continued efforts in supporting the next generation of epilepsy researchers.

AES would also like to thank our funding partners for joining us to support the future of epilepsy research:

The Epilepsy Foundation for one award in full
The Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation for co-funding of one award
Epilepsy Study Consortium for full funding of two ESC mini-grants
Wishes for Elliott/International SCN8A Alliance for co-funding of one award
The American Brain Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, and American Academy of Neurology for their decade-long partnership with the American Epilepsy Society for support of the Susan Spencer Clinical Research Training Scholarship