The fourth annual meeting of the FP7 project ‘Desire: Research to Improve Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment in Children with Difficult to Treat Epilepsy’ was held at the University of Malta Valletta Campus from October 17 to 19.

The DESIRE project, which focuses on genes that cause malformations in the brain causing epilepsy in childhood, brought together over 100 researchers from 28 research groups from seven EU countries and also Australia.

EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedes recently highlighted DESIRE as a key EU-funded epilepsy research project. He said that research in epilepsy is vital since the condition affects over six million people in Europe and costs over €20 billion per year. He added that there was an urgent need for greater awareness, better prevention, earlier diagnosis and better care.

The coordinator of the project, Prof. Renzo Guerrini, University of Florence, explained how DESIRE has led to unique networking possibilities and is coming out with some important results.

The meeting focused on recent results and networking among the various work packages.

Prof. Jeffrey L. Noebels, from the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas and Prof. Charlotte Dravet who discovered the gene responsible for Dravet Syndrome, also contributed to the discussions.

The meeting was coordinated by the University of Malta partner Prof. Janet Mifsud, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, in conjunction with the University of Malta Conference Unit and Project Support Office.

www.epilepsydesireproject.eu