Personalized Medicine May Hold New Path For Controlling Seizures

DETROIT (WWJ) - Three million people in this country are living with epilepsy. Now there's a new way to help in their treatment.

One way many people control their seizures is through medication. But with so many different types available - what works for one person may not work for another. That's were personalized medicine can help reports WWJ health reporter Dr. Deanna Lites.

Philip Gattone is with the Epilepsy Foundation and says it all starts with a simple blood test.

"So it takes some blood, the doctors at MIT can turn that into a stem cell, and a stem cell is really wonderful because it can take the form of any cell in the body. So they then take the stem cell and turn that into a neuron and then they can do the high throughput screening (HTS) and so they can test all the approved therapies on those neurons."

Doctors at Harvard and MIT are using it to help patients determine which therapy will work best for them.

If you'd like to learn more about personalized medicine for epilepsy go to epilepsy.com or call 800-332-1000.