Assoc Professor Gavin Rumbaugh
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Scripps Lab, Florida
Gavin Rumbaugh is a tenured Associate Professor at The Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida. Gavin’s lab has identified several genes that are critical regulators of synapse biology, excitatory balance and cognitive function. These genes also increase the risk for developing neurodevelopmental disorders. Current studies in the lab are aimed at understanding how risk genes disrupt synaptic properties during developmentally sensitive periods and how this process triggers behavioral impairment and seizure. The lab’s overarching goal is to apply knowledge gained from biological studies of genetic risk factors to accelerate the development of therapeutic agents to treat impaired brain excitability and behavioral dysfunction.
Links to some of Assoc Prof Rumbaugh’s bio and research papers can be found here (https://www.scripps.edu/research/faculty/rumbaugh).
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Development of Targeted Therapies for Genetically-Defined Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Rare genetic variants are known to cause epilepsy and related neurodevelopmental disorders. When the causal link is a single gene, it is possible to create highly specialized experimental systems for the purpose of producing tailored-made therapies for a given patient group. My talk will provide an overview of our efforts to create cutting-edge infrastructure and model systems that enable the identification and validation of drug-like compounds that target a genetically-defined neurodevelopmental disorder with epilepsy.
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Panel discussion with all the speakers chaired by Sara James
Professor Annapurna Poduri, Professor Ingrid Scheffer, Dr Snezana Maljevic, Assoc Professor Gavin Rumbaugh, Professor Steve Petrou, Professor Glenn King, Sara James (Chair)
To round out the Genetic Epilepsy Family Conference 2018, all the invited speakers formed a panel to take questions and discuss points raised across the day.