3.4.2023: Bahram Sarvi Zargar: Unveiling the pathology of epilepsy
Bahram Sarvi Zargar: Unveiling the pathology of epilepsy
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
These words by T. S. Eliot hold true for many of us in our personal and professional lives. For me, they perfectly capture the journey that led me to a PhD program in neuroscience, working on a project to unveil the pathology of epilepsy.
With a background in engineering and experience working as a biomedical engineer in a cardiovascular hospital and research center, my interest in neuroscience began to develop during my master’s in biomedical engineering. My thesis involved developing a method to predict epileptic seizures using deep learning. However, my focus remained on the brain and neuroscience research, which led me to pursue a PhD program.
My research
I am now honored to be working as a PhD reseacher on a project titled “Beyond the Imaging Limits – New Ways to Unveil the Pathology of Epilepsy” led by Professor Reetta Kälviäinen. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. Seizures are episodes of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that can cause a wide range of symptoms, including convulsions, loss of consciousness, and abnormal movements. Epilepsy affects over 50 million people worldwide and can have a significant impact on a person’s quality of life.
Our goal is to help those living with epilepsy by giving them the chance to live a relaxed, normal, and seizure-free life.
Our multidisciplinary research group aims to help patients with epilepsy by improving the identification of the epileptic zone through the integration of pre-operative high-sensitive and specific MRI, video-EEG, and cutting-edge post-operative analyses. We also assess tissue morphology with ex-vivo MRI and histology, network function, and other factors. Our goal is to connect clinical MRI with comprehensive, molecular, functional, histological, and morphological investigations performed on the same human tissue that was resected.
Patients with refractory epilepsy undergoing preoperative epilepsy surgery will be recruited at Kuopio University Hospital for our study. The resected tissue will be analyzed at A. I. Virtanen Institute, which has the instruments and expertise to carry out multimodal tissue analyses and multilevel data integration. Our research aims to go beyond imaging limitations by exploring new ideas about the MRI and uncovering the pathophysiology of epilepsy. Our goal is to help those living with epilepsy by giving them the chance to live a relaxed, normal, and seizure-free life. As Eliot said, we are trying to know the place, the epileptic brain in our study, why develops epileptic disease in for the first place.
Better understanding and treatment of epilepsy
In conclusion, epilepsy is a complex neurological disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. Advances in neuroimaging and neuroscience research are helping to improve our understanding of this condition and develop more effective treatments. I am grateful for the opportunity to work on such a significant project in neuroscience, and imaging. The support of my community and supervisors has been crucial, and I hope to reach new horizons and we can make positive differences in the lives of epileptic patients.