Experimental Epilepsy Research
Department of Neurosurgery
Group outing 2020
Head
Prof. Dr. Carola Haas e-mail
University Medical Center Freiburg
Neurocenter - Department of Neurosurgery
Exp. Epilepsy Research
Breisacher Strasse 64
D-79106 Freiburg i. Brsg.
Latest news
Nicole Barheier received the NWG travel grant for the 15th Göttingen meeting 2023
Carola A. Haas, Piret Kleis and Enya Paschen received DFG funding for the project:
„Deep brain stimulation for seizure suppression in experimental epilepsy”
Latest publications:
Differential vulnerability of neuronal subpopulations of the subiculum in a mouse model for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
Julia Franz, Nicole Barheier, Susanne Tulke, Henrike Wilms, Carola A. Haas and Ute Häussler
Front. Cell. Neurosci. (2023) https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2023.1142507
Preprint available: BioRxiv (2022) https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.02.494518
Downregulation of ubiquitin-specific protease 15 (USP15) does not provide therapeutic benefit in experimental mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
Häussler U, Neres J, Vandenplas C, Eykens C, Kadiu I, Schramm C, Fleurance R, Stanley P, Godard P, de Mot L, van Eyll J, Knobeloch KP, Haas CA, Dedeurwaerdere S
Preprint available: ResearchSquare (2023) https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2625841/v1
Comprehensive multiomic profiling of somatic mutations in malformations of cortical development
Chung C, Yang X, Bae T, Vong KI, Mittal S, Donkels C, Phillips HW, Li Z, Marsh APL, Breuss MW, Ball LL, Garcia CAB, George RD, Gu J, Xu M, Barrows C, James KN, Stanley V, Nidhiry AS, Khoury S, Howe G, Riley E, Xu X, Copeland B, Wang Y, Kim SH, Kang H-C, Schulze-Bonhage A, Haas CA, Urbach H, Prinz M, Limbrick Jr. DD, Gurnett CA, Smyth MD, Sattar S, Nespeca M, Gonda DD, Imai K, Takahashi Y, Chen H-H, Tsai J-W, Conti V, Guerrini R, Devinsky O, Silva Jr WA, Machado HR, Mathern GW, Abyzov A, Baldassari S, Boulac S, Focal Cortical Dysplasia Neurogenetics Consortium, Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network, Gleeson JG
Nat Genetics 55, 209–220 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01276-9
Main research goals
Epilepsy is a brain disease defined as repeated seizures reflecting recurrent, abnormal, and hypersynchronous neuronal discharges. Epilepsy affects 0.5-1% world population, i.e. 50 million people worldwide. In many cases seizures can be controlled by medication though epilepsy cannot be cured yet. However 30% patients with epilepsy suffer seizures that are resistant to pharmacological treatment. In particular focal epilepsies such as mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) are often drug resistant. In these cases neurosurgery currently remains the more reliable treatment to control seizures.
The Experimental Epilepsy Research laboratory aims at a better understanding of focal epilepsies with the perspective of developing new tools for treatment and/or intervention. To this end we follow a three-pillar approach involving:
- Analysis of human epileptic brain tissue resected for therapeutic purpose,
- In vivo disease modeling with mouse MTLE models,
- In vitro studies (organotypic hippocampal slice cultures) offering easy accessibility and pharmacological manipulation.
We use a plethora of molecular, biochemical, electrophysiological and behavioral techniques to investigate the role of correct lamination, synaptic reorganization, neuronal loss and generation of new neurons in the epileptic brain.

Responsible for the Experimental Epilepsy Research's website:
Enya Paschen (e-mail to Webmaster)
Updated: March 2023
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