Tiered Mentoring Program

Translational Interrogation of Seizure Models in Zebrafish 

Dr. Amber Kerstetter-Fogle, Research Program Director of Neurology and Complex Care at Summa Health Akron 

Epilepsy is a current chronic health concern affecting more than 65 million people around the world.  It is a neurological disease affecting over 65,000 people in Northeast Ohio, and 3.4 million people in the United States.  Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disease, after migraines, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Clinically, epilepsy can present with a simple twitch to a generalized seizure with tonic clonic characteristics.   Despite current available therapies, about 30% of patients have drug resistant seizures because most therapies aim to suppress seizure and do not target the underlying mechanisms (Hakami, 2021). 

Mammalian models of epilepsy have been widely studied and contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms of epilepsy.  Zebrafish models of epilepsy have recently became of interest but have an advantage of ease of use and manipulation of the genetics contributing to epilepsy.  By utilizing zebrafish as a model of epilepsy, we can create high throughput experiments to help our understanding in seizure mechanisms.  We propose to develop a translational model of epilepsy at Summa Health that will be utilized to interrogate drug interactions on a high throughput scale.  This will allow us to interrogate existing drug combinations and newly developed therapies for epilepsy.