ABC -seminaari: Novel invasive and non-invasive biomarkers in the presurgical evaluation of patients with drug resistant epilepsy

Welcome to our ABC Seminars! This seminar series is open for everyone. The talk will take place in Otakaari 3, F239a Auditorio. After the talks, coffee and pulla will be served.

The event will be also streamed via Zoom at: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67444945844

Title: Novel invasive and non-invasive biomarkers in the presurgical evaluation of patients with drug resistant epilepsy

Abstract: Up to one third of patients with epilepsy are medically intractable. Resective surgery is the best available treatment for these patients. The goal of surgery is the resection or disconnection of the epileptogenic zone with preservation of the eloquent cortex to avoid any loss of brain function. Yet, the epileptogenic zone is a theoretical construct, and cannot be measured directly. Its best estimator is the seizure onset zone where clinical seizures start, and intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) serves as the gold standard for the delineation of this zone. 

However, given the unpredictability of seizures, an accurate delineation of the seizure onset zone may not be always possible or may require long recording time. Hence, the possibility of estimating the epileptogenic zone through a precise interictal biomarker, independent from seizure occurrence, would reduce the required recording time of iEEG, as well as its cost and risk of infection or neurological damage. 

In this talk, Dr. Papadelis will present the most recent advances of his research group in the development of novel interictal noninvasive and invasive biomarkers of epilepsy that can help the presurgical evaluation of patients with drug resistant epilepsy.

Bio: Christos Papadelis is the Founding Director of Research at the Jane and John Justin Neuroscience Center of Cook Children's Health Care System, a Professor of Research in Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. 

Dr. Papadelis has more than 20 years of experience in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) technology with both adults and children. He has received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1998, and his MSc and Ph.D. in Medical Informatics, in 2001 and 2005 respectively, from the same institute. 

After his Ph.D. graduation, he worked as Research Scientist at Brain Science Institute of RIKEN, Japan, from 2005 to 2008, and as Post-Doc Research Fellow in the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, Italy, from 2008 to 2011. Back in 2011, he joined Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) as an Instructor in Neurology and Manager of the BabyMEG facility, one of the very few MEG laboratories in the world fully dedicated to pediatric research. 

In 2015, Dr. Papadelis was promoted to Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and initiated the Clinical MEG Program. Since 2019, Dr. Papadelis is with Cook Children's Health Care System where he leads the newly founded research center for neurosciences. 

His research covers a broad range of studies in neuroscience, clinical neurophysiology, and biomedical engineering. Dr. Papadelis has >80 peer-reviewed research investigation articles and numerous articles in conference proceedings. In more than half of these papers he is either first or last author. He is an Academic Editor in Scientific Reports and PLoS One, ad-hoc reviewer in >50 journals, as well as guest editor in special issues of his field. Several figures of his work have been selected as covers for scientific journals. 

He has received funding from the NINDS, the NICHD, the American Epilepsy Society, the European Union, the HMS, the BCH, and the pharmaceutical industry.