The focus of my Epilepsy and Neurodevelopmental Disorders lab is stratified and precision medicine, which are global initiatives to personalise treatment based on genetic, personal and lifestyle factors. In stratified medicine, we are using deep phenotyping to distinguish prognostic groups in common epilepsies and as a tool for increasing the power of genome-wide association (GWAS) analysis. Endophenotypes are relevant across neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders and can help us to identify common or distinct causes and mechanisms. We can then study the function of these genes with neurobiologist colleagues at the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Sleep disturbance is a serious but underappreciated comorbidity in childhood epilepsy and one that affects not just the child but the whole family as well. Having a child with epilepsy adds another dimension because both the child and parents often live in a state of fear and anxiety about what may happen in the night. We have designed a novel electronic behavioural intervention for sleep problems in epilepsy that is under evaluation in a national randomised controlled trial. If successful, we hope to translate the intervention into a simple app for parents and revolutionise how effective behavioural treatments can be delivered.