The Epilepsy Foundation Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Institute recently announced the winners of the organization’s third challenge to identify biomarkers that could predict SUDEP in epilepsy patients.
The foundation intends to award approximately $1.2 million in prizes for all four challenges. The SUDEP challenge was the third of the four challenges. Five different medical researchers received awards for their work.
SUDEP is one of the main causes of death among young adults who have uncontrolled seizures. This makes identifying biomarkers an important part of improving the quality of life for people with epilepsy.
The goal is to identify the biomarkers that signify a person is at risk for SUDEP. These biomarkers can be either endpoints or surrogate endpoints to promote progress in developing SUDEP innovations and treatments.
More than 400 people registered to join the challenge from 22 countries; they submitted a total of 48 solutions. The five winners earned $15,000 for their innovations.
“As a lead investigator of the Center for SUDEP Research, it is exciting to see new investigators bringing innovative ideas forward to help us find a way to predict and prevent SUDEP,” Dr. Samden Lhatoo, reviewer for the SUDEP Challenge Initiative, said.
