Home Department: Biology
Mentor: Ivan Soltesz (Neurosurgery)

2025 Research Project:"Hippocampal Interneuronal Cell Dynamics in Epileptic Mice"

65 million people are diagnosed with epilepsy around the world at any given time, and about a third of them will not achieve seizure control with existing medications. Understanding the neuronal mechanisms underlying epilepsy will improve therapies for patients by allowing the discovery of more specific drug targets. Eliza will specifically focus on temporal lobe epilepsy, which is the most refractory form of epilepsy, and use a variety of in vivo approaches to investigate the activity dynamics of inhibitory hippocampal interneurons that are well-positioned to control network activity.

2026 Research Project:"Dynamics of Hippocampal Axo-Axonic Cells in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy"

65 million people are diagnosed with epilepsy worldwide, and a third of them will not achieve seizure control with existing medications. Understanding the neuronal mechanisms underlying epilepsy will improve therapies by enabling more specific drug targets. Eliza will focus on temporal lobe epilepsy, the most refractory form of the disorder. Eliza’s project last summer found that axo-axonic cells, a subset of hippocampal interneurons, are well positioned to control network activity in temporal lobe epilepsy. Building on this work, Eliza will further investigate the dynamics of axo-axonic cells in temporal lobe epilepsy and determine their role as targets for epilepsy treatments.