Jun 08, 2026 - Curing the Epilepsies
Krystal and Joanna attended the 2026 Curing the Epilepsies conference at the NIH. This conference was co-hosted by the NIH and the American Epilepsy Society, and was designed as a forum for the epilepsy research community to gather to assess advances in the field, identify gaps in knowledge and translation, and identify transformative priorities. The eventual outcome of this meeting will be revised Epilepsy Research Benchmarks to guide the field over the next 5-7 years. It was a privilege to be a part of this crucial conversation.
May 19, 2026 - Impromptu “reunion” in Japan!
Krystal (current PhD student, taking a well-deserved holiday) and Ruitao (the lab's most recent undergrad alum, soon to start a PhD program) managed to meet up in Japan.
May 07, 2026 - Anastasia joins the lab
We are excited to welcome a new student, Anastasia Minkova, to the lab! Anastasia brings a strong research background (in cognitive neuroimaging) and is a future pediatrician. She will join Krystal in studying mechanisms of SUDEP. Welcome, Anastasia!
May 02, 2026 - Ruitao receives honors for his thesis work
Ruitao graduated with High Honors in Neuroscience and received the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience Director’s Award for his thesis. Congratulations, Ruitao!
Apr 27, 2026 - Graduation dinner to celebrate Ruitao and Saif
We celebrated our lab's graduating seniors by taking them out to dinner, along with their mentors/ close collaborators in the Mattis lab. Saif is a co-author on two recent manuscripts from the lab, based upon his innovative method for detecting seizures on long-term EEG recordings; he will be taking a gap year to broaden his clinical experience while he applies to medical school, and will continue his work in the lab, adapting his method for rapid/on-line seizure detection. Ruitao is a co-first author on the lab's recent publication characterizing hyperthermia-evoked seizures in a mouse FCD model, and will be a co-author on another paper in preparation for submission later this year; he will be moving to Georgia Tech for a PhD. We are grateful to them both for their contributions to the lab, and look forward to hearing great things as they move forward in their careers. Congratulations, Saif and Ruitao!
