The doctoral dissertation in the field of Molecular Medicine will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Kuopio campus. The public examination will be streamed online.
What is the topic of your doctoral research? Why is it important to study the topic?
The title of my thesis is “Magnetic resonance imaging-based biomarkers of epilepsy in a rat model of traumatic brain injury”. There is currently no treatment which can prevent the development of epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury. Clinical trials of antiepileptogenic interventions are expensive in part because of a lack of epilepsy biomarkers. Diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers could be used to select into clinical trials those patients likely to develop epilepsy, thus reducing the number of patients required to produce a study with sufficient statistical power.
What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?
The key finding in the research was that a quantitative MRI analysis of the ventral posterior thalamic nucleus predicted the development of epilepsy after the experimental traumatic brain injury. Some earlier studies in this animal model have associated MRI analyses of thalamic changes with increased susceptibility to seizures but not with spontaneous seizures. The research thus reinforces the conception that thalamic damage contributes to the generation of epileptic seizures in this animal model. The sample size used was larger than of those typically used in preclinical imaging studies, which enabled a higher statistical power and the use of more complex multivariable models.
How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?
The research presents a diagnostic biomarker that could be used to select animals likely to develop epilepsy after the experimental traumatic brain injury. This could decrease the number of animals needed for long-term antiepileptogenesis studies which place a high demand on the amount of equipment, facilities, and working hours needed.
What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?
The methodology was based on commonly used quantitative MRI methods to allow for easy translation to clinical studies. The data was acquired as part of EPITARGET (https://epitarget.eu/), a multinational, EU-funded epilepsy biomarker study.
The doctoral dissertation of Eppu Manninen, Master of Science, entitled Magnetic resonance imaging-based biomarkers of epilepsy in a rat model of traumatic brain injury, will be examined at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The Opponent in the public examination will be Professor Andre Obenaus, University of California, Irvine, and the Custos will be Professor Olli Gröhn of the University of Eastern Finland. The public examination will be held in English.
Public examination
For further information, please contact:
Eppu Manninen, eppu.manninen (a) uef.fi, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/person/eppu.manninen/
