Looking back at 2025, there were many new studies launched that advanced epilepsy treatment, a condition that is still currently uncurable. Three highlights include the new AI-powered Meld Graph that can accurately analyze MRI brain images, advances in genetic testing for people with epilepsy that guide doctors to more successful drug treatment plans, and the development of EpiScalp, a tool that turns routine electroencephalograms into precise epilepsy predictors using algorithms to map brainwave patterns and identify hidden epilepsy signs. Given 2025’s severe federal funding cuts to National Institute of Health’s neuroscience research projects, including the BRAIN Initiative, it’s important to celebrate the progress. As we start 2026, I am intrigued by a December Georgetown University Medical Center study, that showed a connection between drug resistant epilepsy, or DRE, and aging glial brain cells. While this sounds a bit wonky and esoteric, when I read the details, they resonated personally for a couple of reasons.
The Georgetown research team analyzed donated human brain tissue that had been surgically removed from patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, the kind of epilepsy I have. When the team compared these with brain tissue collected during autopsies from individuals without epilepsy, the samples from epilepsy patients contained five times more senescent glial cells. Glial brain cells provide physical and chemical support to the brain’s neurons and maintain the brain’s environment. Senescent cells are damaged (often older) cells that have stopped dividing but don’t die.
While researching and writing my memoir, Seizing Control, I carefully read the neuropathologist’s analysis of the excised portion of my brain, ordered by my neurosurgeon. His report found moderate to severe levels of gliosis in the cells. Gliosis is the brain’s protective response to injury or disease, which leads to the overgrowth and proliferation of glial cells to form a scar that walls off damaged areas and attempts to heal the nervous system. Seizures can cause gliosis and gliotic scars can also worsen seizures. This vicious circle is one reason why surgery can be the best option for people with DRE.
What’s truly exciting about this study is that the researchers found that they could decrease seizures by removing the aging glial cells using medication. The study focused on two medications, Dasatinib a therapy currently used to treat leukemia and Quercetin, a plant flavonoid found in fruits, vegetables, tea, and wine that can act as a powerful antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties. The researchers selected this combination because both drugs are already being tested in early phase clinical trials for other conditions. In addition, Dasatinib is already FDA approved for leukemia, so its safety profile is well understood, which could help fast track future clinical trials in people with epilepsy “Our hope is that senotherapy, which involves using medications to remove senescent, or aging cells, could potentially minimize the need for surgery and/or improve outcomes after surgery,” said lead study author, Patrick A. Forcelli, Ph.D., professor and chair of Georgetown School of Medicine.
Given brain surgery’s invasive nature, I love the goal of minimizing the need for it. I truly hope Georgetown has the resources it needs to move this study to the next phase and test the medications on people with DRE. If senotherapy is successful, neurologists will have an additional pharmaceutical tool in their boxes. This will hopefully decrease the need for invasive brain surgeries, which can take months or longer to recover from, as I described in my book, Seizing Control.
When I opted for brain surgery to treat my drug-resistant epilepsy in 2014, I donated the excised kiwi-sized portion of my brain for research purposes, another reason the Georgetown study resonates with me. Whenever I read about research done with donated brain tissue, I feel a sense of pride. The studies feel like a shout out to those of us who played a small role in advancing epilepsy research. My 2026 new year’s big wish is that the institutions working on advancing epilepsy cures, including Georgetown Medical School, have access to the resources they need to forward their work.
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