Jan Daněk, MRes, BSc (Hons)

My first scientific experience was under the supervision of Prof. Jakub Otahal in 2018, when I participated in the Students’ Professional Activities competition for high schoolers. The presented project investigated a connection between white matter changes and epilepsy. Later on, I went to the UK to study Neuroscience at UCL, where I wrote my bachelor’s thesis under the supervision of Dr. Rob Wykes, PI at the Department of Experimental Epilepsy. The BSc. project was focused on a pilot preclinical investigation of gene therapy efficacy (increase of Kir4.1 gene expression) in an animal model of absence epilepsy.

During my bachelor studies, I had also undergone an internship in Prof. Otahal’s laboratory, where we investigated the effects of a potent antioxidant, sulforaphane, on metabolism and cerebral blood flow in the context of temporal lobe epilepsy, utilising immature rats. After completing my BSc I continued working on the project as a research assistant. We have investigated the effect of sulforaphane and acetazolamide on electrophysiology and blood flow and higlighted anti-seizure effect of these blood-flow augmenting compounds.

Later I completed MRes in Translational Neuroscience (with Distinction). The thesis project focused on the "Investigation of resting-state fMRI for the evaluation of epilepsy patients" and was carried under the supervision of Dr. Meneka Sidhu, PI at the Department of Clinical Epilepsy at UCL. Currently I am a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Kudova and Dr. Novak. My aim is to identify promising synthetic neurosteroids as new antiepileptic drug candidates using animal models.