$8.225 million funding for BRI

The Brain Research Institute (BRI) has secured an $8.225 million grant to support epilepsy research.

The Research Program, Epilepsy: A Collaborative Research Program from Genome to Patient, will be led by Professor Sam Berkovic, considered one of the world's pre-eminent scientists in epilepsy.

This was one of only six successful New Program Grants awarded in Victoria in 2001 by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The grant, to run for five years, will bring together scientists and clinicians to study genetics, changes to brain cells and the whole brain, and patient care in epilepsy.

In the intensely competitive program grant process, the panel assessing BRI's application described Professor Berkovic as having an "unparalleled record of achievement, both clinically and scientifically".

Professor Warwick Anderson, Chair of the NHMRC's Research Committee, said that the strategic direction adopted for this round of grants represented a watershed, providing researchers and institutions with the opportunity to access funding for larger-scale grants of longer duration than previously.

"Australian health and medical research funded by the NHMRC outstrips many of its international counterparts in almost every field," Professor Anderson said. "It is important to acknowledge that NHMRC-funded research is not just the best in Australia - it is among the best in the world."

Associate Professor Graeme Jackson, Director of the BRI and a senior investigator on the program, believes that a multi-disciplinary approach is the way forward in understanding and treating epilepsy. The senior people on the grant, including collaborators from the University of Melbourne and the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, were considered to form "a well-equipped team" that would "make advances in both diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy".

"Epilepsy is a common disease with complex inheritance, meaning it involves more than one gene. While there has been much excitement about sequencing of the human genome, the fact remains that genetic discoveries nearly all relate to relatively rare diseases caused by only a single gene," Professor Berkovic said.

The other chief investigators on the program grant are Dr Steve Petrou and Associate Professor David Williams from the Department of Physiology at the University of Melbourne and Dr David Reutens and Associate Professor Ingrid Scheffer from the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre.

The various forms of epilepsies affect at least two percent of the population at some time, and many of them have a genetic basis.