Marian University Professor Publishes Epilepsy and Seizure Work

Professor Medhane Cumbay, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacy is being praised for his published work during summer 2022. Assistant Provost for Research and Scholarship Jonathan Lowery Ph.D., says Dr. Cumbay participated in an international research team whose aim was to better understand why some patients with epilepsy have more severe disease than others. They focused on a single family in which multiple members have epilepsy to determine if unknown genetic factors impact the symptoms of the disease.

"Their results show that, even for heritable conditions such as epilepsy, the same genetic mutation does not necessarily lead to the same experience for each person, Dr. Lowery said. These findings are important to the understanding of how genetics may or may not lead to disease, and open the door for future studies aimed at therapies for improving the lives of patients."

Dr. Cumbay's work was published in the journal Epilepsia in June 2022 in collaboration with investigators at multiple institutions including IUPUI, the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, and two institutions in Germany.