Top image: Dancing at Winter Garden, NY
CURE Epilepsy
3/2021 - present: For CURE Epilepsy, I am developing detailed content for patients and caregivers in a way that highlights and demystifies the science around the epilepsies.
11/2020 – present: Using the team science principles that were employed for infantile spasms (described below), I am developing a publication on a similar initiative for post-traumatic epilepsies (PTE).
10/2018 – 10/2020: Infantile spasms (IS) is a devastating epilepsy syndrome that typically begins in the first year of life. Symptoms consist of stereotypical spasms, developmental delay and an abnormal EEG pattern known as hypsarrhythmia.
3/2021 - present: For CURE Epilepsy, I am developing detailed content for patients and caregivers in a way that highlights and demystifies the science around the epilepsies.
11/2020 – present: Using the team science principles that were employed for infantile spasms (described below), I am developing a publication on a similar initiative for post-traumatic epilepsies (PTE).
10/2018 – 10/2020: Infantile spasms (IS) is a devastating epilepsy syndrome that typically begins in the first year of life. Symptoms consist of stereotypical spasms, developmental delay and an abnormal EEG pattern known as hypsarrhythmia.
- With CURE, I developed a publication a unique method to fund scientific discoveries called the "team science" method.
- This initiative brought together an interdisciplinary group of investigators who would have not otherwise have collaborated to find transformative therapies for IS.
- The published paper is here.
6/2020 to present: Adjunct Faculty; Public Health Foundation of India
PHFI is helping to build institutional and systems capacity in India for strengthening education, training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health.
As an adjunct faculty, I am creating a module on common neurological disorders for general practitioners in India. The modules are structured on the following topics:
PHFI is helping to build institutional and systems capacity in India for strengthening education, training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health.
As an adjunct faculty, I am creating a module on common neurological disorders for general practitioners in India. The modules are structured on the following topics:
- Overview on common neurological disorders.
- Epilepsies and seizure disorders.
- Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, tremors.
- Stroke.
- Other neurological disorders e.g. headaches and migraines, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
3/2020 to present: Research consultant, Schizophrenia Research Institute (SCARF)
- Developing a systematic review on the use of technology to screen dementias in lower and middle-income countries
- Using information from the systematic review to guide the development of an application to screen dementias in resource-poor areas.
- The systematic review protocol entitled "Using Technology in Dementia Care in Low- and Middle-income countries – A Systematic Review" has been published in PROSPERO, the International prospective register of systematic reviews.
10/2016 to present: Member of the ILAE/AES Translational Research Task Force
- Discoveries made in animal studies often fail to translate into clinically relevant therapies; the ILAE/AES Translational Research Task Force is working to optimize epilepsy research and lead to new treatments for people with epilepsies. As part of an initiative to systematically review the animal data for their relevance to particular clinical syndromes and comorbidities, I co-authored this paper for the peer-reviewed journal Epilepsia that outlines the rationale and protocol of the systematic analyses.
- Currently, we are working on extracting information from studies to eventually enable machine learning.
- My experience in basic and clinical epilepsy led me to think of the translational implications of my work; in this article in BMJ, I write about my personal motivations for joining the Task Force and how this initiative can help reimagine translational epilepsy efforts.
Centers for Disease Control
03/2019-11/2019: I worked on two projects with the CDC:
03/2019-11/2019: I worked on two projects with the CDC:
- Translating educational materials from Spanish to English. These materials were on the following topics: alternative therapies for epilepsy, febrile seizures, caregiver burnout, and basic concepts of epilepsy.
- A study looking at the effect of social media on conversations among persons with epilepsy