Studying Epilepsy in Awake Head-Fixed Mice Using Microscopy, Electrophysiology, and Optogenetics

Dr. Wykes is a Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and a Senior Lecturer in the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester. He is well regarded for development of novel technology and therapies to investigate and treat seizures. He was amongst the first to adapt in vivo optogenetic and calcium imaging approaches to epilepsy research, and established the efficacy of a potassium channel gene therapy approach in preclinical models. More recently as a partner on the European Commission Graphene Flagship Project he has been characterising in vivo graphene micro-transistors capable of full bandwidth electrographic recordings. These devices promise to facilitate detection and therefore improved understanding of the role spreading depolarisations play in several neurological disorders including epilepsy.

Dr. Umpierre is interested in how glial cells shape neuronal circuits in the basal state and during the pathological progression towards epilepsy. In his graduate work, he studied how astrocytes heighten their sensitivity to neuronal glutamate release after status epilepticus—a prolonged seizure condition that may precipitate epilepsy development. In response, astrocytes increase their glutamate uptake in the latent period preceding epilepsy, representing a potentially neuroprotective mechanism. In his postdoctoral work, he studies the role of purinergic signaling in shaping microglial responses to shifts in neuronal activity across a physiological and pathophysiological range. His work focuses on calcium signaling in brain slice and awake mice using two-photon microscopy to study glial function, combined with pharmacology, single-cell recording, EEG, and chemogenetic approaches.