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School of Neuroscience

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience

Epilepsy

Our goal is understanding the different forms of epilepsy and developing new ways to treat this potentially devastating disease. Over 1% of the population has epilepsy - more than 50% of these patients develop their first seizure in childhood. We work to understand the underlying causes of human epilepsies, from faults in specific cell types, to changes across brain circuits. This may also explain other genetically determined developmental problems often found in people coping with seizures that start in late adolescence or adult life. This suggests that specific developmental changes may precede most epilepsies. The aim of this research programme is to shed light on the mechanisms underlying human epilepsies, from specific cellular defects to network abnormalities.

Our key questions:

What are the genetic causes of epilepsies?
How are changes in genes and environment linked to changes in epilepsy-specific cells and brain circuits?
What are the links between the developmental changes found in late onset epilepsy?

Epilepsy is a key research theme of the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, which brings together world-leading researchers across King's College London.

Click people profiles to discover their research:

Professor Joseph Bateman

Professor of Molecular Neuroscience
Professor Juan Burrone

Professor of Developmental Neurophysiology
Dr Gerald Finnerty

Senior Lecturer
Dr Laura Mantoan Ritter

Consultant Neurologist and Adjunct Reader
Professor Rosalyn Moran

Professor of Computational Neuroscience
Professor Deb Pal

Professor of Paediatric Epilepsy
Dr Sonja Pyott

Visiting Senior Lecturer
Professor Mark Richardson

Head of School (Neuroscience)
Dr Richard Rosch

Clinical Lecturer
Professor Jernej Ule

Van Geest Professor of Neurodegeneration Research
Dr Antonio Valentín

Reader in Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy
Dr Darren Williams

Reader in Developmental Neurobiology
Dr Toby Wise

Senior Research Fellow

Early life and development

News and events

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A long-term and scalable system to record from neural organoids

A new brain organoid system helps reduce unwanted variability and scales up experiments for higher…

Karen Steel receives Grand Scientific Prize from Fondation Pour l'Audition

25 March 2026

Professor Karen Steel awarded Grand Scientific Prize by hearing foundation

French hearing organisation, Fondation Pour l’Audition, awarded Professor Karen Steel their Grand…

1 Apr

Joint R&D Office drop in

Joint R&D Office Wednesday Walk-In

01 April 2026

Drop in and discuss your questions with the Joint R&D Office on the first Wednesday of every month.

3 Sep

2026 Scientific Meeting of the British and Irish Chapter of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

03 September 2026

The 2026 Scientific Meeting brings together a community of researchers, clinicians, and…