Charles L. Howe, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study is to target two autoimmune neurological conditions that we consider proof of principal T cell- and antibody-mediated disorders that will provide a substrate for the evaluation of potential effectiveness and broader applicability of the Adimune tolerization strategy.

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of systemic inflammation in the genesis of seizures in susceptible children by gaining a clearer understanding of the spectrum of inflammatory responses that occur in healthy children post-vaccinations.

The purpose of this study is to measure the space and time characteristics of inflammatory mediator release in response to induced epileptiform activity in ASD-resistant patients.

The purpose of this study is to characterize the astrocyte response to various inflammatory drivers in the presence of innate immune cells collected from healthy subjects. We will identify innate immune cell populations that contribute to astrocyte reactivity and elucidate the mechanisms responsible for altering the transcriptional and translational profile of astrocytes.

The purpose of this study is to develop a battery of balance tests for deployment in the clinical setting using the APDM wearable system and to establish a comparable battery for longitudinal in-home assessment using the single GENEActiv wearable device.

The purpose of this study is to define the spectrum of inflammatory responses to pathogen and alarmin challenge in healthy children and in children with new onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) or drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE), to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying aberrant inflammatory responses to pathogen and alarmin challenge in a cohort of children with validated inflammatory drug-resistant seizures, and to measure alarmin-induced neuroinflammatory and electrophysiological responses in patient-specific iPSC-derived neural organoids.

The role of the immune system in epilepsy is currently unknown. We also do not know if neurons (nervous system cells) are injured in patients with epilepsy during seizures. The purpose of this study is to measure markers of immune activation and neuronal injury in your blood so that we can compare the levels of these factors in healthy individuals to the levels measured in patients with epilepsy. A specific component of this study is the collection of blood from healthy subjects at 5 different times during the same day (6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM). This is different than the way most healthy control samples are collected. Repeated collection of blood from healthy subjects is important because this is how we collect and analyze samples in patients with epilepsy. We need to know if the changes we have observed in epilepsy patients are caused by seizures or whether such changes can occur simply as the result of repeated measurements or time of day.