Larimer Laboratory

Research in the lab focuses on the role of inhibition in epileptic networks and the use of novel techniques to decrease seizure-related death. Epilepsy is caused by a chronic relative decrease in inhibition relative to excitation in the brain, leading to unpredictable seizures. In some patients, seizures can lead to sudden death, likely through propagation of seizures into brainstem networks. Transplanting inhibitory neuron precursors into a mouse with epilepsy leads to a significant decrease in seizures, but the mechanism by which this seizure reduction is produced is not known. The lab uses in vivo and acute brain slice physiology, in conjunction with optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches in mouse models of epilepsy to study the circuit alterations that underly seizure reduction following inhibitory neuron transplantation.