IN THIS ISSUE:

• Going Back to Camp

• Reaching My Dreams with the FACES College Scholarship

• FACES Apartments

• The 2021 Virtual FACES Gala: A Night Unlike Any Other

• A Fresh Look for FreshFACES

• The Men Behind the Music: Bringing Music Therapy to Game Day

• Finding Understanding in the FACES Parent Network

• Other News and Research Updates!

www.nyufaces.org @facesfriends @nyufaces

2021Annual Newsletter

FACES Staff

• Orrin Devinsky, MD

Founder, FACES Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center • Luis Valero

Executive Director • Peggy Guinnessey, MPH, CTRS

Parent Network Coordinator • Brielle Cummings, MBA

Project Coordinator

FACES Advisory Board

Michael Auerbach

Katie Boehly

Alessandro Borgognone

Lawrence Davis

Orrin Devinsky, MD

David Dorfman

Anna Fantaci

Jacqueline French, MD

Robert Hougie

Angela Howard

Stewart Karger

Bill Lambert

Warren Lammert

Randi Levine

Amy Pollner Moritz

Kate Cooney Picco

Mary E. Quick

Jot Sandhu

Steven Spiegel

David Swinghamer

Lucas van Praag

Danielle Walker

Joseph Walsh III

Leah Weisberg

Michael Weisberg

Scientific/Medical Committee

William Barr, PhD

Nisida Berberi, MD

Santoshi Billakota, MD

Judith Bluvstein, MD

Michael Boffa, MD

Aviva Bojko, MD

Harry Chugani, MD

Orrin Devinsky, MD

Sasha Devore, PhD

Werner Doyle, MD

Patricia Dugan, MD

Adeen Flinker, PhD

Jacqueline French, MD

Daniel Friedman, MD

Deana Gazzola, MD

Eric Geller, MD

Rina Goldberg, MD

David Harter, MD

Biyu Jade He, PhD

Teresa Hidalgo, MD

Scott Hirsch, MD

Manisha Holmes, MD

Katherine Inoyama, MD

Amy Jongeling, MD

Cassandra Kazl, MD

Josiane Lajoie, MD

Karen Lee, MD

Beth Leeman-Markowski, MD

Anli Liu, MD, MA

Abigail Lofchie, MD

Daniel Luciano, MD

Raji Mahalingam, MD

Lucia Melloni, PhD

Daniel Miles, MD

Chris Morrison, PhD

Mangala Nadkarni, MD

Siddhartha Nadkarni, MD

Heath Pardoe, PhD

Dana Price, MD

Alcibiades Rodriguez, MD

Andy Rodriguez, MD

Jennifer Rosenberg, PhD

Lilian Salinas Urbina, PhD

Rebecca Scott, PhD

Claude Steriade, MD

Blanca Vazquez, MD

UPCOMING FACES EVENTS• freshFACES 2021:

Thursday, October 7, 2021 New Date To Be Announced Tentatively at Current, Chelsea Piers

• Game Day 2021: Saturday, October 23, 2021

New Date To Be Announced Tentatively at the Field House, Chelsea Piers

• TeamFACES NYC Marathon 2021: Sunday, November 7, 2021

• FACES Gala 2022: Monday, March 7, 2022 (Tentatively at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers)

PEACE OF MIND LECTURES 2021–2022 Please note, all lectures will take place on Zoom. Dates subject to change.• Update in Pharmacological

Epilepsy Treatment Presented by Dr. Blanca Vazquez Tuesday, September 21, 2021 | 6:30–8:00pm

• Epilepsy 101—Adult Patients Presented by Dr. Daniel Friedman Tuesday, November 9, 2021 | 6:30–8:00pm

• Epilepsy 101—Pediatric Patients Presented by Drs. Judith Bluvstein and Jennifer Rosenberg Tuesday, December 14, 2021 | 6:30–8:00pm

• Epilepsy and Social Issues Presented by Dr. Santoshi Billakota Monday, January 24, 2022| 6:30–8:00pm

Save the Dates

As the COVID pandemic retreats from America,

it continues to ravage much of the globe. It

has reshaped our world. There have been

unimaginable costs: 200 million people infected,

more than 4 million deaths, hundreds of

thousands of businesses lost. Even on the darkest

of clouds, silver linings emerge. New York City—

paralyzed and devastated as an early epicenter—

has reemerged with remarkable resilience. Streets

are alive, restaurants are full, traffic is back.

Thankfully, people with epilepsy were largely

unscathed by COVID. They had no increased

risk of becoming infected or developing serious

complications unless they were over age sixty-

five, immunosuppressed, or had serious heart

or lung disease. Perhaps the greatest hardship

was borne by those with intellectual and

developmental disabilities who faced isolation

and were taken away from people and activities

they cherished without understanding why.

COVID’s silver lining was a chance for many of

us to reevaluate our lives. The better balance

between work and family, the diminished value

of commuting and traveling for work, and the

rewards of more sleep. On another, deeper level,

emerged a question of priorities and focus. We

are allotted only so many in our personal and

professional lives, and these are among the most

important choices we will make.

I hope the next few years will be a transformational

time for FACES in which we can focus on strategic

initiatives and translate some of our long-term

investments in foundational scientific studies in

SUDEP, novel electrodes, novel self-management

programs, brain stimulation, and gene therapies

into therapies that not only reduce the burden

of seizures and epilepsy but hopefully save and

improve lives for all people with epilepsy.

FACES and NYU Langone Health have been

on the forefront of SUDEP research, having

established (1) the largest international

SUDEP registry—the North American SUDEP

Registry (NASR), (2) the largest international

collaborative study—the Epilepsy Monitoring

Unit Retrospective Study (more than eighty-five

epilepsy centers), and (3) the largest Sudden

Unexplained Death in Childhood Registry &

Research Collaborative (SUDC-RRC) in which

one-third of these children have febrile seizures.

These efforts have led to the publication of more

than eighty peer-reviewed academic studies

and reviews on SUDEP and SUDC. We were key

participants in the NIH-funded Center Without

Walls for SUDEP research and were recently

awarded a $2.5 million NIH grant to continue our

Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Retrospective Study.

This study has three aims: (1) to identify novel

risk factors and biomarkers to predict SUDEP

risk, (2) to use Bayesian statistics to create

a model to predict a specific person’s risk of

SUDEP and how interventions—some simple

like improved medication adherence or better

sleep—can reduce risk and determine how great

that risk reduction would be, and (3) to use

artificial intelligence to mine routine EEGs that

can predict SUDEP risk. The Epilepsy Foundation

SUDEP Challenge Initiative recently selected

four among more than twenty submissions for a

predictive biomarker(s) to identify people at risk

for SUDEP. NYU Langone Health researchers led

or participated in three of the four selected!

Orrin Devinsky, MD

Founder

Letter from the Founder

This year’s FACES Annual Newsletter

recapitulates highlights of the past year, which

has been a time like no other in our lives.

We have all been impacted by the outbreak of the

COVID-19 pandemic, causing uncertainty, stress,

and devastation for so many. In the face of

these challenges, it was also a time that brought

out the best in many people—from healthcare

staff and first responders on the front lines to

essential workers who tirelessly provided food,

products, and services.

In the midst of the events that unfolded, we

recognized the need to rise above it all with

resilience, creativity, and a tenacious team

spirit. With the FACES community in mind, we

were proactive in making sure we remained

connected, and we continued to provide

programs and services in every way possible.

Technology played a great part in enabling us

to deliver critical community programs and

services. Our consolidated efforts with the NYU

Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center (CEC)

and various resources within NYU Langone

Health system enabled us to reach out to the

community through social media and video

conferencing. On Facebook we presented

wellness sessions that consisted of two music

therapy segments and a deep breathing exercise,

and on Zoom we facilitated a series of Peace of

Mind Lectures led by CEC faculty and staged

an hour-long virtual Game Day 2020, during

which attendees were able to enjoy a cheerful

sing-along, lessons in basic magic tricks, and

a colorful Halloween costume contest, all

culminating with the popular Lollipop Game from

the safety and comfort of their homes.

Being confronted with situations beyond our

control did not diminish our obligation to

continue providing essential programs such

as the Dr. Blanca Vazquez Summer Camp and

FACES College Scholarships. To facilitate the

application processes and make the programs

more accessible, we have implemented online

applications for both programs. Communication

lines remained open as we continued to share

updates through the FACES e-newsletters and

our annual FACES newsletter in print.

Tough times test a community’s commitment.

Economic and social disruption did not deter

our donors from all fronts to extend their

generosity. The response to the freshFACES

committee’s online fundraising campaign in the

fall of 2020 was overwhelming, and it inspired

us to push forward with a more ambitious goal:

the 2021 FACES Appeal. The campaign started

in December 2020 and culminated with a

remarkably successful Virtual FACES Gala 2021,

which raised nearly $4.3 million (details are

available in a dedicated article).

This year has been a great catalyst for change,

and FACES made every effort to rise to the

challenge of adapting to a new way of life and

to identify ways in which we could best serve

our community. Going forward, our vision is

focused on our commitment to foster a deeper

understanding of the FACES community and

further strengthen our partnership.

Thank you for all you do!

With much gratitude,

Luis Valero

Executive Director

Letter from the Executive Director

Each year, FACES is proud to award summer camp scholarships to children with epilepsy via the Dr. Blanca Vazquez Summer Camp Scholarship program. This year, the FACES Scholarship Team was excited to make the application more accessible by putting it online. Below is the personal statement from the mother of one of this year’s recipients:

My fourteen-year-old daughter, Violet, has epilepsy. She has ESES/CSWS, nighttime spiking, which affects her short-term memory as well as her spa-tial memory. Violet

also has several learning disabilities and ADHD. She is currently on medication that keeps most of this under control.

This summer will mark Violet’s sixth summer at camp. It’s the one place in the world (besides home) that she knows where she is going, has a ton of fun, and can gain independence.

As with most teens during the pandemic, Violet has spent almost all of her time in her room, alone, on a screen. Sleepaway camp is the exact opposite. She has friends, can socialize, and is outside most of the day. Most important, there aren’t any screens. Violet can interact in person with kids her own age, and she comes home glowing and happy and filled with life.

She even went to camp last summer—thanks in part to a FACES scholarship. The camp required quarantining, testing, and masks but it worked! No camper or counselor got COVID.

Even with the masks, Violet had an amaz-ing time. She even got the Camper of the Week award; she was so proud.

As a teen with epilepsy, learning disabilities, and ADHD who was living in a pandemic, Violet has had trouble maintaining social connections during the regular school year. Camp gives her the chance to reach out and bond with other people her age.

Susie is an ador-able, fun-loving eight-year-old girl with a seizure disor-der. Like all children, Susie likes to feel loved, accepted and wanted. Unfortu-nately, her seizure

disorder sets her apart from her peers as she cannot always partake in regular daily activities that most children her age can.

The summer months, especially, pose a severe challenge for Susie, since overheat-ing and outdoor play can instantly trigger a seizure. When Susie needs to stay indoors while her neighbors and friends are enjoy-ing the many outdoor activities summer has to offer, Susie feels very upset, disap-pointed, saddened, and confused. Why can’t she be like everyone else? Why can all her siblings, neighbors, and friends ride bikes, play ballgames, jump on trampo-lines, and go hiking while Susie needs to remain indoors or stationed in the shade for fear she might not feel well?

To put it lightly, Susie hates being sin-gled out. Susie must drink constantly to remain hydrated. Susie may not run in a game of tag. Susie cannot go to parks or playgrounds on beautiful sunny days. All of which makes her siblings feel different too.

Susie has two older brothers and two younger sisters. They love her dearly and will do everything in the world to protect her and to make her feel wanted, loved and welcomed. But her siblings feel hurt when they can’t participate in summer activities because of their sister’s seizure disorder. It’s scary enough to know your sister is at risk of having a seizure, and even more so to see your sister experi-encing a seizure or the aftermath of one. But kids are kids. And kids want to enjoy life—the fun and the joy and the many experiences life has to offer.

This year, we were lucky to find a sleep-away camp with all the necessary amenities to provide the children with the fun they crave but with all the necessary preventive measures to avoid seizures or other emergencies. A camp where Susie’s seizure disorder will not stand in the way of fun and play. A place where Susie will be like everyone else and have the ability to participate in stimulating, exciting ac-tivities without compromising her health. A camp that cares for the safety and fun of its campers and will set up a program geared to each child’s individual needs with all safety measures in place.

Sending our daughter to a sleepaway camp is not easy, on neither our hearts nor our pockets. It’s not easy for parents to send away a child who has a seizure disorder that requires medication twice a day. Her well-being weighs on our hearts and minds all day and night.

The staff has assured us that they will care for her like family so that we can have some relief and breathe easier this sum-mer. As parents, it is heartwarming and pleasurable to be able to provide the rest of our family with the summer fun they deserve without the worry and fear that by having a fun family adventure, we would be endangering our daughter’s health.

With this scholarship, Susie will be able to get the camp experience she deserves, and her siblings will also enjoy a break and expe-rience the joys of summer. It will provide our dear Susie the opportunity to bask in the sunshine of love, acceptance, and joy.

With best wishes for a healthy summer for all,Izzy and Sandy Grand

Going Back to Camp

To be notified when the 2022 Dr. Blanca Vazquez Summer Camp Scholarship applications are open, join our mailing list at http://faces.med.nyu.edu/mailing-list.

My mission is to empower others to live their most inspired lives. I am a radiant, passionate young professional and student with a vision to give epilepsy the voice it deserves. Through my journey with epi-lepsy, I was inspired to earn my master’s degree in social work so that I can offer resources to and advocate for those with epilepsy and other disabilities in an effort to increase their quality of life. So much more can be offered to this population, and this population has so much more to offer the world. Epilepsy needs more voices, and I am capable of being one.

This scholarship has greatly assisted me in working toward my goals with a bit more ease, as I can only work part time and COVID-19 has only made the situation more difficult. It’s important to me to share my personal journey with epilepsy and why I feel the need to assist this community in every way that I can in my professional career as a social worker, epilepsy volunteer, and advocate.

My toughest battle with epilepsy started after college when I elected to have a cranial resection surgery to alleviate my seizures. I was a four-year collegiate soccer player, embracing the health and fitness world, when my epilepsy worsened. It was time to make a major change, and surgery became that change. In just one month, my two planned surgeries turned into four, as I experienced life-threatening complications. However, during the resection surgery, my doctors were able to remove a piece of scar tissue that was causing my breakthrough seizures. Though I was left with little move-ment and feeling in my right hand, as well as the loss of twenty pounds of my athletic muscle, I was full of hope and on the road to recovery! I participated in physical therapy for walking and movement to get me back on my feet and intense occupational thera-py for my right-side deficits.

I am very humbled to say I reached a four-year seizure-free mark on July 16, 2021, and I have regained all strength in my right side and about 25 percent feeling in my right hand. I had lost all of my physical athletic ability from these surgeries, as simply walking into the grocery store had become a difficult task. Now, I am coaching up to four hours of fitness and soccer each day. To say I am thankful for my improvements is an understatement. These are leaps and bounds that I am blessed to have made. More important, I believe my improvements extend beyond the physical, as I feel I have learned so much as a person. I have always been an optimistic, happy gal, but this trying experience pulled out a strength in me I did not realize I had. I developed deeper appre-ciation for life and more genuine empathy than I had ever had. Even if my seizures were not improved, I feel that this adversity has made a difference in the woman I am today—a woman with a mission and goals for the future of epilepsy and disability.

After a year and a half of recovery, taking it day by day and working through mental struggles, my perspective has changed. My life no longer revolves around phys-ical fitness alone. I have become aware of and captured by mental health and how both mental and physical health are intertwined. I am a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS), a certified

holistic health coach, and a current mas-ter’s of social work student, working to dig deeper and bring these fields together for an integrative practice. I envision a facility for physical and mental healing, a space where support groups and individuals with disabilities and/or ailments can meet and participate in movement practices to better their physical and mental health. I am a dreamer, and this is a long-term goal of mine. I know that one day my epilep-sy support group will be able to meet in this exercise facility and find therapeutic relief in one another’s company as well as gentle movement and meditative practice.

In sharing this long-term goal with you, I real-ize how important this scholarship is to me. As a volunteer at the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut, I currently facilitate a young adult support group for individuals with ep-ilepsy and an open support group. Through this experience, I have met so many amazing individuals, and I would like to think I have helped them in some way. With this scholar-ship assisting me in earning my master’s of social work, I am able to expand my involve-ment with the foundation and play a larger role for these individuals. Many of them need to be heard, need hope, and deserve a voice. Though epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, we are underrep-resented, and, I believe, underestimated! So much more advocacy can be done. For example, I recently launched a fundraiser for a young boy with epilepsy and spina bifida whom I met through the Epilepsy Foundation Connecticut. When his mother indicated that he would benefit greatly from a service dog, I offered to climb Mount Washington to help raise the funds. Together, we raised more than $20,000 in one week and were featured on NBC Connecticut News. I real-ized that was the first time I had ever heard epilepsy on the news, and this segment only scratched the surface of the conversation around epilepsy. It is quite amazing that such a simple gesture raised so much awareness and love throughout our communities. This is another example of how earning my MSW will allow me to be a voice for this population. There is so much room for conversation, education, and advocacy, and it would be well deserved. The future is full of possibility in helping those who need support both physically and mentally, and I intend to help.

Reaching My Dreams with the FACES College Scholarship By Paige Marinelli

Each year, the FACES College Scholarship program gives partial financial assistance to students with epilepsy. FACES is proud to assist these students in reaching their educational goals. For more information and to be notified when the program will be opened next year, subscribe to the FACES mailing list at http://faces.med.nyu.edu/mailing-list.

The COVID-19 pandemic created uncharted challenges worldwide. The hospitality industry either halted or heroically pivoted into safe havens for our frontline workers. Thanks to the incredible staff at the Roger, the Affinia Shelburne, and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, we were able to juggle testing requirements, travel restrictions that varied by state, and constantly changing information. Pa-tients and their families were enormously understanding and were grateful for the opportunity to have a safe space to call home during their procedures in this especially challenging time. The emotional, physical, and financial tolls of having a child with intractable epilepsy are well known to everyone dealing with this illness. Having to travel and get treatment in a new place, especially in a city like Manhat-tan, during a pandemic can be a harrowing experience. To find shelter and caring peo-ple during such times made it an unexpect-edly gratifying experience. We were able to stay at the FACES Apartments during the COVID-19 pandemic. All guidelines for COVID prevention were strictly adhered to by the Affinia Hotel management and staff; this excellent service relieved us of all anxi-ety that came with the ongoing situation. The opportunity to stay at the FACES Apartments came as a great surprise, as we were struggling with finding accommo-dations to stay near NYU Langone Health in Manhattan for our daughter’s fourth surgery in less than a year. Her previous three surgeries and postoperative fol-low-up visits had required us to find hotel accommodations on our own. The process began with smooth and wel-coming communication from Brielle Cum-mings, the FACES Apartment Coordinator. The entire booking process was effortless. Throughout both visits the staff was cordial and provided excellent service. They made us feel welcomed and truly cared for! Help was available right at the door. Even though we had a wheelchair, a walker, and luggage for three people anticipating a week’s stay, we did not struggle a bit to get it all to our room thanks to help from the staff. The length of stay provided was more than adequate. Without asking, we had enough time to reach the apartment two days before surgery. The check-out date was also con-venient, and we stayed in the apartment for more than twenty-four hours after discharge from the hospital. Our daughter was able to rest and recuperate and did not have to suffer eight hours of travel right after being discharged from the hospital.

I thank everyone who is part of FACES and the Affinia Shelburne Hotel. Last but not least, we are indebted to FACES founder Dr. Devinsky. — Mridula Prasad, MD, FACES Apartment Guest

My daughter was enrolled in a clinical trial at NYU back in May. When we started talking about our upcoming first appoint-ment for dosing, our research coordinator mentioned that if it was available, we could utilize the FACES Apartment. Our appoint-ments were over two consecutive days and began early in the morning. My daughter has intractable epilepsy, and our general rule is to not wake her too early because of the threat of seizures. The option to stay at the FACES Apartment really helped make arrangements much more manageable. We stayed for two nights, and waking her wasn’t a big issue because we had more time to get to our appointments. She didn’t have any seizures on awakening, but I knew if she did, I was still only minutes away from our appointments.

We live in the suburbs, and traveling to New York City is stressful under normal circum-stances. Amanda has had seizures in the car, so when traveling to NYU Langone, my husband usually drives and I stay in the back seat with her. Because we have access to the apartment, my husband can drop us off at night and I can handle the bulk of these visits alone so my husband doesn’t have to take as much time off work. This is such a major blessing. We have so many doctor appointments and not missing work, if possible, helps lighten the stress.

The room had two queen-size beds, which was more than we needed, and also had a small refrigerator so I could store Aman-da’s food for her special (ketogenic) diet. The personnel at the hotel was extremely friendly and very helpful. Our first night on

that first visit, we forgot one piece of our luggage, and they graciously supplied us with the toothbrushes and toothpaste we were missing.

The hotel is located within a few blocks from Dr. Devinsky’s office and not a far walk from the Kimmel Building, where her procedure was held. The outpatient labs are close by too. We have a special-needs stroller for Amanda, and walking to all our appointments was a breeze. We were actu-ally early to most of the appointments.

We just returned from our second extend-ed trial visit, and the FACES Apartment was again available for us to use. We drove to New York the night before our appoint-ment, got settled, and had a great night’s sleep. We had plenty of time to get ready for our appointment and no stress of worrying about beating traffic or Amanda having a seizure in the car on the way into the city. We are very thankful for this option and will ask about availability for our future extended appointments.

— Maryanne Houser FACES Apartment Guest

FACES Apartments by the Numbers:From January to June 2021, the FACES Apartments:• Have provided rooms to 37 families - Of those families, 36 were from the US - 1 was international • A total of 172 nights were used

FACES Apartments

FACES Apartment stays are offered on a first come, first served basis for Comprehensive Epilepsy Center patients and their families. For more information, please contact Brielle Cummings, FACES Apartment Coordinator at facesapartments@nyulangone.org.

Anyone who has attended the annual FAC-ES Gala knows why it is an institution with-in the FACES community. Guests from all over the country flock to Chelsea Piers not only for a night of unprecedented philan-thropy but to come together to reflect on how far the epilepsy community has come and to remember how much there is left to do. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the 2020 FACES Gala was a highlight of the year; the benefit was its most successful ever, raising over $6.2 million.

2020 was a year of transformation, with the entire world going through a time of tribulation and rebirth in some form or another. At FACES we knew we had to rise to the occasion of continuing this tradition in 2021 while working within the constraints necessary to keep guests safe and healthy.

Born from this was the first Virtual FACES Gala. Unlike anything produced by the or-ganization before, FACES collaborated with NYU Langone’s Creative Services team to create a sixty-minute video highlighting the programs, services, and research projects that make this nonprofit great through video messages from patients, research-ers, special guests, and Dr. Devinsky. The creative services team brought our vision to life, and on April 28, at 6:45pm, the vid-eo went live! Adam Watt, photography and video production manager, shared behind-the-scenes insight leading to the creation of the final product.

“Our team has worked on the FACES Annual Epilepsy Conference as well as the Peace of Mind Lecture Series in the past, so we know the wonderful team at FACES already. How-ever, this was our first time working the gala,

and we were excited to see how our skill set could assist in ensuring that the newly con-ceived virtual gala would go off smoothly.”

Before the official event started, guests were treated to a trip down memory lane with a slideshow of galas past, highlighting the people and programs that comprise FACES and that made the night possible. Members of the FACES community (Teri Eberhardt, Michelle Levine, and Ingrid Casanova) gave their own video accounts of how FACES has impacted them positively. For Teri, the annual Game Day event is a day of fun interacting with children like her daughter. Michelle’s receipt of a FACES College Scholarship award is allowing her to reach her dreams. And for Ingrid, using the FACES Apartments allows her to concen-trate on her daughter’s health, not where she will stay while her daughter is receiving treatment. After much anticipation, the event began with a warm welcome from Dr. Devinsky, followed by some words from gala cochair and new FACES board mem-ber Michael Auerbach. “The funds we raise tonight will open doors to groundbreaking research collaborations globally through the extraordinary team of doctors, researchers, and medical professionals at NYU Langone Health’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and provide life-enhancing patient and family programs and services,” Michael said in a heartfelt opening message.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a FACES Gala without a live auction facilitated by master auctioneer Hugh Hildesley, who auctioned off prizes, like a Spanish getaway and an LA Dodgers package, with ease and exper-tise. We then heard from comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco, who shared

a message we could all empathize with. “I can’t stand the words ‘virtual, pivot, and pod.’ Those are the three words I could do without the rest of my life . . . But congratu-lations and job well done!”

Following Sebastian’s speech, FACES got to honor a very special group of people who have done incredible work in this emotion-ally challenging time: the Parent Network. FACES board member and Parent Network cofounder Kate Picco and Parent Network coordinator Peggy Guinnessey shared the history and mission of a group that simply wanted to make parents of children with epilepsy feel less alone. What started with two people has grown into a network of sup-portive parents that has helped hundreds of families and children. Peggy Quinlan and Soraia Gonzalez shared the story of how they met. Soraia came to the Parent Net-work after her daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy and needed help navigating the education system. She was introduced to Peggy Quinlan, who knew all about dealing with this when her son Ryan was diagnosed. Connecting people who can empathize is the heart and soul of the Parent Network, and FACES is proud to honor not only the parents who give support but also the ones brave enough to ask for it.

Jordane Dimidschstein and Navneet Matharu, research scientists whose work has been funded by FACES, updated guests on upcoming research projects, citing gene therapy as an exciting frontier for better therapies for epilepsy.

The 2021 Virtual FACES Gala: A Night Unlike Any Other By Brielle Cummings

Grateful, patient speakers Ben Stone and Domenica Alioto shared how the work of the NYU Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center has changed their outlooks on life. “The mission of FACES can seem auda-cious to the point of hubris if you don’t know the people involved. I work in biotech and oftentimes people hesitate to use the word “cure” for fear of being accused of giving patients false hope . . . I won’t go into the whole story, but it’s safe to say that the day I met Dr. Devinsky was the day I took the first step on the path from well enough to cured,” Ben said in his video.

Hugh Hildesley then joined us once again for the live appeal, a lightning round of donations to benefit the many facets of the FACES mission. Finally, the very spe-cial guest, actor Harrison Ford, shared his own message and closed out the night by announcing that he will be emceeing the 2022 FACES Gala!

The night raised more than $4.2 million and would not have been possible with-out the work of the NYU Langone Health Creative Services Team, everyone who submitted their video testimonials, and our sponsors, donors, and supporters.

The 2022 Gala will take place on Monday, March 7. Be sure to mark your calendars!

VIRTUAL FACES GALA SPONSORS

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE SPONSORSKatie and Todd BoehlyLoretta Brennan GlucksmanLauri and Michael HermanAngela Howard and Matt StoneSheila and Bill LambertAndrea and Anthony MelchiorreAmy and Lee Pressler, MDMichal Shtender and Michael AuerbachLeah and Michael Weisberg

BENEFACTOR CIRCLE SPONSORSDr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins FoundationDorothy and Mark DoyleAmy Pollner Moritz, Peter Schnall, and Alice ThorpeJessica Nagle and Roland Hartley-UrquhartSukey and Mike NovogratzNancy and Fred Poses

SUPPORTER CIRCLE SPONSORSAmherst PierpontDeborah and Orrin Devinsky, MDAlexis and David DorfmanMyrna and Fredric GershonLori and Stewart KargerRandi and Jeffrey LevineVictoria Perla and Paul GuyardoMarlene and Michael PerlmutterJill and David RobbinsGinny and Steven SpiegelMiranda and Lucas van PraagDanielle and Tom WalkerBarbara and Joseph Walsh III

PATRON CIRCLE SPONSORSAnonymousNancy and Jeff BergmanSusan and Jonathan BramRondi Charleston and Steven RuchefskyTrudy Elbaum and Robert GottesmanDonna Emma and S. Lawrence DavisAnna and Jim FantaciGreenwich Biosciences, Inc.The Henry Gustav Floren FoundationRobert HougieCarolyn and Steven KotlerLoulou FoundationColleen and Tagar OlsonKate Cooney PiccoRobin and Rich PzenaMary E. QuickRE Children’s Project Inc.Michael SciarraSusan and David SwinghamerUCB, Inc.Alyssa and Ashok VaradhanAllyson and Andrew Wiener

FRIEND CIRCLE SPONSORSKelly and Joel AbramsonAra D. Cohen Charitable Lead TrustWendy Eden BakerLiz and Jeffrey BierCantor Fitzgerald Relief FundChurch and Dwight Co., Inc.Ulrika and Joel CitronAndrea and Paul ComptonHarry FalkNancy Crum Ferry and Thomas R. Ferry

Calista Flockhart and Harrison FordBarbara FreitagCarol and Jerry GalganoRose and John Garrett IIIMarianne and Steven HauckJames J. HoulihanInstitute of Neurology & NeurosurgeryJacobson Family Charitable FoundationJames T. Lee FoundationJudy and Jason KatzKenneth and Claudia Silverman Family FoundationLeslie and Daniel Luciano, MDJulia Mandelblat and Simon VineElaine, Antony and Clio MardenEllen and Daniel Miles, MDWhitney and Michael MarriottTonia and Greg MayesLisa and Charles ModicaKim and Sharon PerhacSafdeye Family FoundationSK Life ScienceShari and Fred SowardJanet Standard and Werner K. Doyle, MDAbby Steller and Elise and Tully FriedmanBlanca Vazquez, MD, and Jose Santana, MDStacey and Neil WeissJulie Wulf and Kurt McCracken

If you would like to view the Virtual FACES Gala video, scan the QR code .

The 2021 Virtual FACES Gala: A Night Unlike Any Other By Brielle Cummings

Behind the Scenes of the FACES Gala Auction

The FACES Gala Auction is an event in itself. Typically consisting of four hundred lots, prizes include once-in-a-lifetime getaways, bottles of wine of the highest caliber, and pieces of art curated by profes-sionals who are renowned in the art world. Sheila Herzog and Sharon Perhac are loyal supporters of FACES who assisted in culling items for the 2021 auction, which took place fully online. The auction alone raised $120,000 for FACES, and it could not be done without their help and the help of all of the donors who contributed prizes. Their generosity is even more appreciated knowing what a difficult year it has been for businesses. Sheila and Sharon gave us a sneak peek of their process for choosing and donating items for one of our most unique online auctions ever.

Sheila HerzogI have been involved with the art-related silent auction area of FACES for more than eleven years. My first contact with the FAC-ES event was at the kind invitation of Dr. Luciano’s wife, Leslie. I had no idea of what FACES did—nor the wonderful impact of the doctors and nurses on our community. Upon arriving at the Hilton Hotel and riding the escalator to the second level (yes, that long ago!), I was stunned at the beauty and setup of the event. Throughout the eve-ning, I was amazed at the audience’s over-whelming spirit of generosity and struck by the heartfelt love and compassion of a father speaking of his child’s recovery.

That next week, I stopped by the FACES office and was met by one of the kindest souls who, when I said, “Perhaps I can help with the art area”—looked up and replied, “Sit and don’t move!” I roared laughing, and I was in! Over the years, the FACES staff has changed many times, but one thing remains—the organization and peo-ple are committed to raising awareness and funds to do amazing work.

I have been associated with a private art collection for most of my professional career. Throughout the calendar months, I apply my knowledge of the art world and utilize many wonderful contacts to collect items for the FACES event. My quest is to present a collection of works that will inspire and please the entire audience. Some works are found with the art collector in mind, some simply for their beauty, and some just their unique quality. Each year is like a puzzle. It is by the generosity of museums, auction houses, private collectors, and artists who all selflessly donate to the FACES office.

So welcome back, FACES 2022! This com-ing year we are pleased to present many works of art, including original paintings, prints, and items that are rare and interest-ing. This year will include a unique dona-tion from an area of collecting that Sothe-by’s has recently added as a stand-alone sale. “Sneaker Heads.” We will present a new pair of Nike sneakers donated from a famed athlete and collector. Where art . . . meets the sports world . . . meets collector. And we may all be a bit sad we threw out our first pair of Nike sneakers—who knew they could be worth well over $1,500? Ah, the changing world of art!

I look forward to seeing some old friends and new faces—2022!

Sharon PerhacProcuring prizes for the virtual FACES Gala Auction was an interesting challenge; however, it gave us the opportunity to be a little more creative this time around. Understanding that many businesses have faced hardships this year, and wanting to be respectful of their situation, I wasn’t able to reach out to my typical contacts for donations. Instead, I worked with Marisa Maltese to choose items that we thought would be appealing to a wide variety of

people and would also look enticing on a screen, as bidders would not be able to see the prizes in person. After a lot of brainstorming, we identified a number of items, including items that the auction winner would be able to customize. Two in particular were a beautiful Hermes bracelet and a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag. While we might have had more restrictions than usual, I was actually able to connect with the prize winners more than I would have if the Gala had been in person. The winner of the Hermes bracelet was able to select the color and finish that was perfect for her, and the Louis Vuitton purse winner was able to customize her handbag to create an heirloom piece that also included her initials. Even better, the prizes were shipped directly to the winners. I think my new way of donating is here to stay!

Being able to give back to FACES by purchasing and donating these items is so important to me because I know firsthand what a positive impact FACES has had on my family. My sister, Kim, is a patient of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and I have been involved with FACES for more than twenty-five years. My sisters and I founded the FACES Game Day event because we wanted to give families of children with epilepsy a day where they just have fun. The funds that are raised from the Gala allow us to host the Game Day event cost-free to attendees, so selecting popular items for the auction is my passion. I love being able to connect to members of the FACES community, and knowing that there are others who are also inspired by the FACES mission and are so generous gives me hope that together, one day, we will find a cure. As so many of us are, I am looking forward to the 2022 FACES Gala, where we will once again be able to celebrate in person the incredible achievements of Dr. Devinsky and the entire FACES team.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, freshFAC-ES, which is typically a cocktail party held at Current at Chelsea Piers, had to go dig-ital. The event raised more than $50,000 for FACES programs and services. Margaret Pedersen, a fundraiser for the campaign and long-time FACES advocate, shares why she got involved.

In 2005 my life as I had known it changed forever. In a way, after that first seizure and the following epilepsy diagnosis, I hit rock bottom. That being said, FACES found me as I was being treated at the Comprehen-sive Epilepsy Center. I remember my first FACES Game Day where I met numerous children who were just like me. It was then that I began to realize that the reason I lived in fear was because I had known nothing about epilepsy or seizures prior to my diagnosis. That FACES Game Day made me realize that I wasn’t alone and that so many other people were in this battle with me, some fighting harder than I had to. The strength these children had, despite the obstacles life threw at them, was inspiring. Because of this, I was motivated to get in-volved with FACES to help raise awareness and get one step closer to finding a cure.

FreshFACES was a way in which I, as a younger person, could be a part of the vast network that works together to spread the word about epilepsy and seizures. I have always enjoyed participating in the fundraising aspect of freshFACES. Not only does it show me how many people support me, it also demonstrates that the word is being spread to those who are not in the epilepsy and seizure community. It shows they care about the work FACES does and believe that one day we will find a cure.

When COVID hit and we were thrown into the unknown, it didn’t take long for us to realize that our annual freshFACES cocktail party was no longer going to happen. While the event is always fun, and it is so nice to see the familiar faces I have met over the years, it is so much more than the glitz and glam of the party that makes it enjoyable. Yes, we mingle, take photos, and enjoy good bidding wars, however all that is trivial when you look at the bigger picture. Party or not, we are there to raise awareness and help the world get one step closer to finding a cure for epilepsy and seizures. Though we had to get creative in how we went about fundraising and reaching out to people, COVID did not stop us. It didn’t stop us because we realized that no matter what was going on, whether we were in person or not, we still wanted to run toward the future and continue to make a difference in the lives of those who suffer from epilepsy and seizures. That being said, no pandemic could ever stop me from continuing our fight and pushing to raise funds to further our mission.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Dr. Devinsky is also a huge part of why I got involved with freshFACES. It sounds so cliché to say this, but it’s true: not all he-roes wear capes. Dr. Devinsky is my living hero. He saved me when I felt as though my world was crashing down and crum-bling at my feet. Not only is the progress he has made in research and education on epilepsy and seizures immense and commendable, the number of individuals whose quality of life he has improved is inspirational. Dr. Devinsky’s hard work and determination cannot be taught; however,

he has fueled a desire within me to be the best version of myself. He changed my life, and getting to be part of his fight is something that fills me with joy. This is the least I can do for him after everything he has done and continues to do for me.

Being uneducated about epilepsy and seizures prior to my diagnosis, I found it imperative to raise awareness and help us move in the right direction toward finding a cure, which is why I wanted to begin fund-raising. I look forward to the day that every-one suffering from epilepsy and seizures gets the freedom to have a normal life and live it to the fullest. There is no greater joy than being able to say that I have made a difference in raising awareness and my contributions to the cause are meaningful.

FreshFACES 2021 date to be announced! For the most up-to-date information on FACES events, subscribe to the FACES email list at http://faces.med.nyu.edu/mailing-list.

A Fresh Look for FreshFACES By Margaret Pedersen

Even though Game Day took place virtually this year, it was important to FACES that our community was able to have an afternoon of fun and games, regardless of where they were logging in from. One of the activities was a very special music therapy session and sing-along led by certified music therapists Ariel Weissberger and Rinaldo Morelli. We sat down with Ariel and Rinaldo to talk about the benefits of music therapy, their experience giving therapy during a pandemic, and their process recording their Game Day segment.

• What are some of the benefits of music therapy?

Rinaldo: Music is therapy. Music can help alleviate stress and anxiety and promote the expression of feelings that are difficult to articulate verbally. This is done through song singing, song writing, and listening to and/or playing instruments.

Ariel: Music can also bring comfort, help us feel connected to ourselves and others, and help us make sense of our circumstances and environments. In mu-sic therapy we create a space for music to help us be our truest selves.

• How has the pandemic changed how you give therapy? Have you had to come up with creative ways to give therapy during sessions?

Rinaldo: Like every other hospital in New York City, NYU Langone was filled with COVID-19 patients. And due to multi-ple factors (e.g., initial conservation of personal protective equipment, COVID-19 patients being in isolation) I went from providing in-person music therapy sessions to virtual remote music therapy sessions. This was done through the hos-pital’s telemedicine application (similar to Zoom) that allowed me to call into a patient’s room, all of which have tablet devices. I played instrumental music for the patient as the nursing and medical staff provided care. And inadvertently, I was also providing music therapy for the nurses and doctors who were treating the patients. During the pandemic we also provided environmental music therapy services where we played music in the hospital lobby for the staff. There was such a positive response to this that we have been asked to continue playing music in the lobby on a weekly basis.

Ariel: Playing music with extra PPE,

singing with a mask on and practicing social distancing, not being able to pass instruments to patients—these were all big challenges. But music can cut through anything, and the essence of its power was always there. For a while visitors were not allowed in the hospital. Patients felt more isolated than ever, and the hospital was the last place anyone wanted to be during the pandemic. There was a high level of stress and anxiety. Our role became perhaps more important than ever as we provided patients with opportunities for positive interaction, hope, comfort, and a sense of familiarity and normalization through music experiences.

• What was the recording process of your Game Day segment like?

Rinaldo: It was a fun experience. Hon-estly, it wasn’t very different from how I was providing music therapy during the height of the pandemic. We found a space that was big enough for both of us to be in so that we could practice social distancing and private enough for us to play music without disrupting other people outside the room.

Ariel: It was so great to connect with a community during this time. The chal-lenge about facilitating an experience like this through Zoom is that you don’t always know exactly what is happening with people on the other side of the camera. But on this particular day we felt such a high level of energy, and we could see people dancing and responding to the music on the computer screen. That energy was the drive behind the music that made the segment feel special.

• How did you choose the songs and ac-tivities for your Game Day segment? Were there challenges that came up as a result of the event being virtual?

Rinaldo: We had several discussions and put a lot of thought into what songs and activities we wanted to provide. Game Day is such an interactive event for the families, and we wanted to bring some of that to a remote virtual event. We also re-minded ourselves that people of all ages would be involved, so we chose songs that both children and adults would enjoy,

which is why we chose “Happy” by Pharell and the children’s song “Mr. Golden Sun.” To make it interactive, we invited everyone watching to sing along, clap their hands, and play along with an instrument if they had one. The biggest challenge for me was worrying about technical issues such as Will the video get cut off unexpectedly? Will the audio not work? etc.

Ariel: These are both very uplifting songs that can bring hope and positivity. They are also highly engaging songs that have different rhythmic styles. “Mr. Golden Sun” has a bit more swing and bounce while “Happy” is a little bit faster and funkier. We knew these songs would be familiar to most people and would invite everyone to participate. Other than the technical challenges, the most diffi-cult part was not being in the same room with everyone, which makes it harder to read the energy of the room and feed off it. However, as I mentioned before, the energy was so high that it ended up turning the challenge into an advantage, and the outcome was awesome.

• As we get back to normal, would you continue to give music therapy virtu-ally? Why or why not?

Rinaldo: My unit returned to normal ser-vices, and I have been providing in-person music therapy services ever since. As with any clinical service, you cannot replace the in-person, human to human interaction. Body language and physical responses to music help to guide our clinical judgments during a session, and it is difficult to gauge those responses on a video screen.

Ariel: Yes, in general I feel that a lot of people are hungry for live face-to-face in-teractions, and want to get away from the screen and go outside. Yet I believe that all the lessons from the pandemic—the vir-tual technology, the resilience, the creativ-ity, the ability to adapt—have expanded the possibilities for music therapy and will lead us in new and exciting directions.

Game Day 2021 date to be announced! For the most up-to-date information on FACES events, subscribe to the FACES email list at http://faces.med.nyu.edu/mailing-list.

The Men Behind the Music: Bringing Music Therapy to Game Day

Ariel Weissberger Rinaldo Morelli

When I was sixteen my friends found me semiconscious on my kitchen floor. I was incoher-ent and mumbling strange words. An ambulance took me to the near-

est hospital where, after several tests, it was determined that I had suffered a seizure. That day was the beginning of an eleven-year journey to find answers to an insidious seizure disorder. After ten years I was finally able to get under control only after my wife and I found Dr. Orrin Devinsky, who prescribed the right medication that has left me seizure-free for the past nineteen years.

The years I spent living with this unusual seizure abnormality were filled with bouts of several seizures a day. I would suddenly fall to the floor, flat on my face, uncon-

scious, hyperventilating for a few minutes to an hour. Then I’d mumble and wake up unaware of what had happened. I once fell onto glass and punctured my abdomen. Another time I passed out in a puddle while walking my dog and someone going to work on the Lower East side found me and called an ambulance to resuscitate me. The incidents were completely random. They stopped my life as I had known it. I couldn’t work, think, read, or concentrate.

After many hospitalizations, a diagnosis of epilepsy in the frontal lobe, and no success with the prescribed antiseizure drugs, I embarked on a quest to discover a solution. I tried meditation, acupunc-ture, Chinese tea, hypnosis, and a Haitian voodoo ceremony. I even traveled to Huancabamba, Peru, and did an Ayahuas-ca ceremony to try and cure my epilepsy.

Dr. Devinsky changed my life. He listened intently and heard me. He spent a lot of

time with me and showed me extreme empathy that I have found to be uncom-mon in medical professionals of his cali-ber. I am forever grateful for his continu-ing support and care. I live a normal life, and thanks to his intervention, my wife and I were finally safe to have a child. Our son is now eleven, and he is a blessing.

FACES is an organization that I have long supported, and I am honored to join the advisory board so that I may help contin-ue to advance the initiatives in epilepsy research and quality of life for those suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy and seizure disorders. I know that my freedom from seizures is rare and that I am very lucky to be seizure-free. It is my hope that I can contribute in ways that will make it less rare and continue to support the mission to find a cure.

If anyone can find a cure to this perplexing disease, it is Dr. Orrin Devinsky.

Welcome New FACES Advisory Board Member: Michael Auerbach

Recipe: Jalapeño Poppers with Lime Cilantro Dip adapted from the Charlie Foundation

Ingredients:• 12–15 fresh jalapeño peppers (400

grams), halved, seeds removed• 8-ounce package (226 grams) cream

cheese, room temperature• ¼ cup (28 grams) cheddar cheese,

shredded, for topping• 1 cup (112 grams) cheddar cheese,

shredded• 4 tablespoons (56 grams) butter, room

temperature• 5 slices (45 grams) bacon, cooked and

crumbled

• 1.75-ounce bag (50 grams) pork rinds, crushed

Lime Cilantro Dip:• 2 cups (480 grams) sour cream• 4 green onions (52 grams), finely chopped• ¼ cup (60 grams) lime juice• 2 tablespoons (30 grams) fresh cilantro,

minced• ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) garlic salt

Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 475℉ and line a baking

sheet with foil. Arrange the peppers on the baking sheet, cut side up.

2. Combine the cream cheese, 1 cup of cheddar cheese, butter, and bacon crumbles in a mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to combine very well.

3. Fill each pepper with the cheese filling using a plastic bag: Scoop the filling into a bag, remove the air, and twist to close. Snip a one-inch corner off the bag and squeeze the filling into each pepper.

4. Place the crushed pork rinds into a small bowl and lightly press the cheese side of each pepper into the pork rinds

to coat. Once each pepper has been coated, sprinkle a small amount of the reserved cheddar cheese on each one.

5. Bake the peppers in the top third of the oven for 10 minutes. Then broil the tops of the peppers until the cheese has melted and browned.

6. If you prefer a completely cooked (and soft) jalapeño, increase the baking time to 15–18 minutes, followed by broiling.

7. For the dip, combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve alongside the poppers.

Nutrition facts: each popper, with 4 teaspoons of dip, provides 14.8g fat, 4.8g protein, 2.6g net carbs, 168 calories, in a 2:1 ratioPlease contact your dietitian to adjust the recipe for you or your child’s ketogenic diet.

Finding Understanding in the FACES Parent Network By Olga Fuentes

I learned what true terror is when our son started having seizures when he was eight months old. Those first few weeks in the hospital, getting tests, trying treatments, and getting preliminary diagnoses, were a dramatic blur of tears and medical jargon and catastrophizing and millions of unanswered questions, the biggest one of which was What do we need to do next? More than anything, those early days were full of isolation and despair. Once we got home, still with no answers, but at

least with the seizures temporarily under control, I did what anyone with medical concerns and unanswered questions should never, ever do, and I asked the internet for answers. More terror and even fewer answers ensued. Meanwhile, our son’s seizures returned, and we sought second, third, and fourth opinions. By some miracle, friends of friends of ours referred us to Dr. Devinsky at NYU Lan-gone, where we found not only help for our son but a whole community.

Our son was hospitalized for a week at NYU Langone while doctors monitored his brain and administered the medication that would ultimately lead to seizure freedom (nine years later, I still knock on wood while writing those words). The FACES Parent Network was with us from day one. We met Peggy, and she introduced us to this amazing network of hundreds of parents who had been through our specific kind of trauma and were willing to talk about it with us, to share ideas and therapies and coping mechanisms, to have playdates. There were families with children who had terrific, seizure-free outcomes and families with children who were still doing battle with epilepsy every single day and lots of families like ours whose outcomes were still very much up in the air. The terror and isolation I had felt in the months since our son’s first seizures abated with each conversation I

had, each connection I made. To say that the network got me through those early days is an understatement. Through them, I found therapists, treatments, advice on bedtime routines, recommendations for toys and games, and, above all, hope.

A year later, we attended our first FACES Game Day. It was a blessing to be able to share our story—seizure-free for over a year at that point—with families whose children had been recently diagnosed, to provide comfort and advice, to give back the gift of hope and connection that had been given to us. We have gone back every year for that connection as much as for the cotton candy and bouncy castles and crafts. And the dozens of families I have met through the network continue to be friends and resources for all sorts of par-enting and life questions.

When your child is sick with something serious, the terror comes with the territory. It is something only other parents who have experienced this can ever truly understand. There is a shared strength and vulnerability, a special compassion and empathy, and a deep understanding of what is at stake that is unique to our community of parents. The FACES Parent Network created space for this community and continues to give fam-ilies opportunities to connect and support one another in good times and bad.

In Loving Memory of Luis Pacheco

On July 5, 2021, the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center lost a member of its family. Luis Pacheco was the administration operations lead at the CEC, and for close to two decades he ensured the office ran smoothly. He was kind and capable, the type of person you would turn to if you had a problem because you knew he could fix it. Even more, he was a beloved fiancé, father, and friend. He will be remembered for his incredible sense of humor and the ability to put a smile on the face of everyone he met. He is forever in our hearts.

FACES would be unable to continue to raise funds and awareness for epilepsy without the personal fundraising efforts from members of our FACES community. Whether the occasion is to remember a loved one who has passed, celebrate a birthday, or simply contribute to our mission, FACES is so grateful for the fundraisers that helped us get through this year. Below are just a few of them:

In Loving Memory of Howard Ganz

Howard Ganz was a beloved husband, father, uncle, grandfather, friend, attor-ney, and mentor to many. Howie deeply loved and supported his grandson, who lives with epilepsy, and he was the best at bringing on the fullest of belly laughs. Friends and family have donated nearly $30,000 to FACES in memory of Howard, and we are so thankful to them for think-ing of us during this difficult time.

In Memory of Max Goldberg

Max Goldberg was a young man with the dream of starting a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for epilepsy. When he passed away unexpectedly in February just after his twenty-first birthday, his family wanted to honor this dream by do-nating to FACES in his name. Even further, family friend, Matthew Zippin, chose to fundraise for Max for his bar mitzvah proj-ect. FACES is astounded by the communi-ty that has surrounded this family and are tremendously grateful for the more than $18,000 that will allow us to continue our quest for finding a cure for epilepsy.

In Memory of Linda Capizzi and in Honor of Michael Aslanian

Linda Capizzi was a beloved wife and grandmother. Upon her passing this past April, her family helped her continue that legacy by asking that contributions be made to FACES in honor of her grandson, Michael Aslanian. The nearly $4,000 that has been given in memory of Linda and in honor of Michael is a reminder of how just two people can make a big difference.

Clemens Knebel Fundraiser

Clemens Knebel started having seizures at six months old. After going through brain surgery at four years old and spending five years in weekly physical, speech, and occupational therapy sessions to overcome some developmental delays, he has now been seizure-free for four years. After being inspired by FACES’s goals and missions, he raised more than $2,000 through school fundraisers and personal outreach. Clem-ens is an excellent example of how raising awareness does not need to be elaborate and can still have a major impact.

Making a Difference

Want to start your own fundraising campaign? It’s easy!

1. Visit http://nyulangone.org/give/fundraise/

2. Click Start a Campaign

3. Once you are settled on this page, scroll down to where it says FACES (Finding A Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures) and click it

4. Put in all the information on the form—title, campaign description, image (optional), an end date/goal amount (optional), and a cover photo (FACES uses the purple background with the circles)—and once you feel as if you answered all of the questions as you want them, click the button that says Next Step: Personal Information

5. On the next page, fill in your personal information and make sure to remember your username and password

6. When you submit your page for review, email facesinfo@nyulangone.org so we can expedite the process on our end

7. Once approved, you will be able to log in and see who has donated to your cause, what messages they have written, and even send thank-you messages from the site!

Research Updates

The core of the FACES mission is to find a cure for epilepsy; the 2021 clinical research studies funded in part by FACES will bring us closer to that goal. FACES is proud to support researchers who are on the cutting edge of science, working to create a reality that doesn’t include seizures.

Sudden Unexpected DeathSudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most common disease-related cause of death among individuals with epilepsy, claiming the lives of more than three thousand people each year in the United States, mostly young adults. The NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center runs a strong SUDEP research program, led by Drs. Orrin Devinsky and Daniel Friedman.

Most people with epilepsy and their families want to have information regarding their own SUDEP risk. Currently, there are no tools that enable clinicians to predict individualized risk for SUDEP, so current guidelines suggest that clinicians discuss “average” risk. If individualized risk prediction were possible, then patients at very high risk might be strongly motivated to adopt medical and lifestyle changes to reduce their risk, while patients at lower risk might be reassured. Dr. Devinsky and collaborators at University College of London recently developed a novel SUDEP risk prediction tool that works at the individual level. The tool takes into account twenty-nine common clinical pieces of information that are obtained at routine office visits (including seizure characteristics, medication history, etc.) and produces an estimate of an individual’s SUDEP risk. The first version of the tool was recently published in the journal Neurology. The tool is now being further tested and developed by clinical researchers with the goal of turning it into a simple computer program that any clinician can run during an outpatient office visit.

While the individualized risk prediction tool is based on clinical features that are easy to obtain at a standard outpatient visit, there are other types of clinical information that may serve as stronger biomarkers for SUDEP. For example, suppression of the EEG signal following a generalized tonic-clonic seizure and heart rate variability (HRV) obtained from the ECG have been suggested as SUDEP biomarkers. However, such biomarkers have never been validated in a large cohort. The SUDEP Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) Biomarker study aims to create the largest matched case–control cohort of SUDEP cases and will allow researchers to rigorously assess and identify candidate biomarkers for SUDEP. The study involves more than eighty-five international sites. Recently, the CEC team, in collaboration with researchers from Monash University in Australia, completed a preliminary study of HRV as a SUDEP biomarker. They found a positive correlation between features of HRV and latency to SUDEP. The SUDEP EMU Biomarker study will extend the individualized SUDEP risk prediction tool to incorporate information from more extensive clinical features including HRV, EEG suppression, HRV,

and imaging abnormalities.

The North American SUDEP Registry (NASR), which enrolls both SUDEPs and non-SUDEP controls, has now enrolled 790 cases, including at least 474 SUDEPs, and continues to enroll new cases.

Finally, the sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) registry and research collaborative (SUDCRRC), a multisite collaboration of more than thirty investigators spearheaded by Laura Gould and Dr. Devinsky, has ascertained more than two hundred cases of deceased children, representing the largest cohort of SUDC cases ever collected.

We recently published a study showing that there is a significant underestimation of SUDC after standard medicolegal death investigation. In particular, we performed a multidisciplinary case review of the first one hundred cases enrolled in the SUDCRRC and found that there was discordance in the cause of death opinion in 40 percent of cases, with the majority of the original certifiers’ cause of death considered accidental or natural but ultimately determined to be unexplained by our expert review. We continue to follow up on this study and are working on strategies to standardize death investigation and educate the death certification community about SUDC.

Our rigorous genetics investigation of 124 SUDC parent-proband trios (i.e., genetic samples obtained from an SUDC case and both parents) identified pathogenic variants in epilepsy and cardiac genes that contributed to death. This work has allowed us to explain deaths that were previously unexplained, giving families the answers they have been longing to find and providing targeted medical recommendations for the safety of surviving family members at risk. We have also embarked on a collaboration with world leaders in other forms of sudden death in the young to perform the most rigorous genetics investigation of these premature and untimely deaths, with the goal of identifying shared risk factors.

Clinical TrialsThe CEC’s clinical trial center, led by Dr. Jacqueline French and codirected by Drs. Blanca Vasquez and Claude Steriade, is engaged in exciting clinical trials to test drugs with highly novel mechanisms of action and methods of delivery. Other clinicians actively involved in clinical drug trials include Dr. Judith Bluvstein and Dr. Orrin Devinsky.

Adult focal epilepsy: Powerful drugs like diazepam and midazolam work well to stop seizures and are often used as emergency medicines. We are performing a clinical

research study of a compound that “calms the brain” by targeting the receptor of a messenger chemical in the brain called GABA the same way that diazepam and midazolam do. The difference is that while those drugs will cause sleepiness, the new drug does not. This new compound targets the GABA receptor in a different manner in order to isolate the antiseizure effect without producing the sedative side effect. This trial is open to adults with focal drug-resistant epilepsy. Participants will be given the study drug or a placebo (inactive drug) to determine how safe and effective the drug is at controlling seizures.

Pediatric epilepsy: Following the history of our success with cannabidiol (CBD), a new trial is underway to treat behavioral symptoms of autism with cannabidivarin (CBDV). We aim to enroll fifty subjects over five years. We are also involved in the MONARCH trial from Stoke Therapeutics, which aims to treat Dravet syndrome using a disease-modifying approach with an antisense oligonucleotide.

For more information on active clinical trials, contact the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center by calling 646-558-0844 or emailing figuem17@nyulangone.org and latoya.king@nyulangone.org.

The Human Epilepsy Project 3 (HEP3)Epilepsy affects more than 2.4 million Americans; idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGE) account for 15 to 20 percent of all epilepsies. Studies suggest that 80 percent of people with IGE can go on to become seizure free with appropriate treatment, yet treatment response is understudied and there are no suitable methods for predicting drug outcomes. The Human Epilepsy Project 3 (HEP3) was designed to shed light on several important unanswered questions, including: Who will not respond to treatment, and why? How important are seizure triggers such as lack of sleep? Are there specific mood or thinking (cognitive) issues experienced by people with IGE?

HEP3 involves a partnership of more than fifteen academic centers, foundations, and tech health companies, led by Drs. Jacqueline French, Orrin Devinsky, and Manisha Holmes at the CEC. The study aims to enroll two hundred patients, with thirty-eight patients currently enrolled. Patients will be followed for a minimum of two years to characterize their clinical course, including disease progression and treatment response. HEP3 builds on the infrastructure of previous HEP studies, and includes collection of many types of data, including medical records, an app-based electronic seizure diary, MRI scans, EEG readings, FitBit activity records, and blood and urine samples, to search for biomarkers that predict disease progression and outcomes. HEP3

Research Updates

also breaks new ground by including patient microbiome data (obtained from stool samples), which will enable researchers to examine cutting-edge questions about the relationship between gut bacteria and brain health.

“Precision Medicine” Therapies for EpilepsyAdvances in genome sequencing technology have enabled the identification of more than one hundred epilepsy-related genes including extremely rare mutations affecting only a small number of patients worldwide. Treatment of seizures in many of these rare disorders is often difficult. Recent developments in gene-editing technology may hold the promise to personalized, precision treatments that permanently correct these devastating genetic conditions. The CEC’s Precision Medicine program brings clinicians at the CEC together with scientific partners at NYU and beyond with the goal of developing safe and effective precision genetic therapies that restore normal brain function in epilepsy patients.

In collaboration with Dr. Orrin Devinsky, Dr. Chengzu Long (Depts. of Medicine, Neurology & Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine) has developed novel CRISPR-based gene-editing tools to permanently correct mutations in cells from individual epilepsy patients. He and his colleagues have now used these “Neuroediting” tools to correct mutations in patients with many types of genetic epilepsies and epileptic encephalopathies, including patients with mutations in the SCN1A, DHPS, SERPINI1, KCNQ2, and GRIN2A genes. The first proof-of-principle studies showed that the Neuroediting tools could correct mutations in stem cells cultured from biospecimens obtained directly from patients. In follow-up work, Dr. Long and his team have turned the stem cells into neurons and are studying whether correcting the underlying genetic mutations improves the function of these neurons. The Long team is collaborating with Drs. Jayeeta Basu and Shane Liddelow from the NYU Neuroscience Institute to grow and characterize more complex brain networks at the bench (termed “epilepsy in a dish”). In addition, efforts are underway to develop multiple mouse models with patient-specific mutations to test the efficacy and safety of Neuroediting tools on brain development from the embryonic stage in a whole organism.

While many challenges remain in bringing these novel treatments from the bench to the bedside, with the pace of development and the ingenuity of the scientific community we are hopeful of witnessing the real clinical impact of genetic therapies for epilepsy.

Improving Diagnosis of Autoimmune EpilepsyDespite advances in neuroimaging and genetic diagnostic techniques, about half of epilepsies continue to have no known cause and about one-third of epilepsy patients do not respond to treatment with antiseizure

medications. Recently, autoimmune epilepsy has been recognized in the classification of epilepsy etiologies, and immune-modulating treatments can help some epilepsy patients. A major challenge in understanding autoimmune epilepsy is the lack of accurate and sensitive biomarkers to track disease activity. Dr. Claude Steriade is working toward developing “gold standard” diagnostic measures.

In an ongoing, multisite, observational study, she is investigating the diagnostic accuracy of using neuronal surface antibody expression as a biomarker for autoimmune epilepsy. In an initial cohort of forty-two subjects, she identified that about 15 percent of patients with focal epilepsy of unknown cause carry autoantibodies targeting various neural proteins, as opposed to zero patients who have epilepsy of known genetic or structural cause.

While the presence of autoantibodies may help detect autoimmune epilepsy, there are challenges in using this biomarker to track disease progression and treatment outcomes. Dr. Steriade is also investigating whether neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging can be leveraged to detect pathological processes in the brain associated with autoimmune epilepsy. She is currently collaborating with investigators in the Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine on this project. If successful, these techniques could detect disease and also track progression and evaluate outcomes.

Dr. Steriade’s research was initially supported by a pair of FACES Pilot Research Grants. She was recently awarded funding from the Clinical and Translation Science Institute’s Scholars Program and has developed multiple grant proposals for National Institutes of Health funding.

Behavioral Interventions to Improve Quality of Life in People with EpilepsyPeople with epilepsy (PWE) are more likely to be depressed than the general population—up to 30 percent of PWE suffer comorbid depression, and the rate reaches as high as 50 percent in those with treatment-resistant epilepsy. Depressive symptoms are associated with more frequent seizures and lower quality of life. Yet treatment of depressive symptoms is inadequately prioritized in the care of epilepsy patients in the United States and internationally. Barriers to treatment include lack of access to affordable mental health care, stigma associated with mental illness, and issues involving transportation to and from mental health visits. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these barriers, making the needs more pressing. Researchers at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center (Drs. Daniel Friedman and Orrin Devinsky) together with colleagues in the Department of Population Health are studying the efficacy of behavioral

interventions aimed at improving depressive symptoms and quality of life in PWE.

The team, led by Dr. Tanya Spruill in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, recently completed a pilot randomized controlled trial of telephone-delivered, group mindfulness–based cognitive behavioral therapy called Using Practice and Learning to Increase Favorable Thoughts (UPLIFT) for Hispanic people with epilepsy. The treatment was culturally adapted and delivered in English and Spanish to a New York City community that has traditionally been underserved in mental health care. They found that, compared to usual care, eight sessions of this one-hour intervention significantly reduced depressive symptoms, and this reduction persisted for twelve months. The study is published in the journal Translational Behavioral Medicine. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control, the group is now performing a larger, rigorous randomized controlled trial of UPLIFT versus telephone-based educational and social support to validate the pilot trial results and determine the components of the intervention responsible for its lasting benefit. As part of this effort, they will study how to best implement UPLIFT so that it can be part of routine care at epilepsy centers nationwide.

Building Better Electrodes for Epilepsy DiagnosisNearly one-third of people with epilepsy have seizures that are difficult to control with antiseizure medication. Many patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy often undergo invasive surgical procedures to achieve seizure control. These procedures often include intracranial monitoring, in which electrodes are diagnostically implanted in the brain to guide surgical treatment decisions including the decision to remove a piece of brain tissue that gives rise to seizures. These invasive electrode studies carry risks of pain, infection, and brain inflammation and require extended hospital stays. Moreover, success rates for achieving seizure freedom following epilepsy surgery could still be improved. Our clinical research team at the CEC (including Drs. Orrin Devinsky, Sasha Devore, Werner Doyle, Patricia Dugan, and Daniel Friedman) are collaborating with scientists and engineers at the New York University Center for Neural Science, Duke University, the University of Utah, and Blackrock Microsystems to develop novel thin-film electrodes to improve the safety and efficacy of epilepsy surgery. The new electrodes are thinner and more flexible than conventional clinical electrodes and exert less force on the brain, which will potentially improve patient tolerability. The new electrodes provide higher resolution recordings using a technology that can print hundreds of finely spaced recording contacts over the electrode’s surface. What emerges is a much more precise picture of the brain’s electrical activity during seizures. A preliminary study, led by

Research Updates (continued)

Dr. Friedman and Dr. Bijan Pesaran from the NYU Center for Neural Science, revealed that the small contacts on these electrodes record seizure-like activity (“microseizures”) that occur on very small spatial scales as compared to seizures recorded on clinical electrodes. In this study, the team obtained recordings from patients in the operating room using a small thin-film device the size of a quarter. The team is now investigating whether microseizures are related to the clinically defined seizure onset zone and work toward performing a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health to rigorously test whether the new electrodes improve epilepsy surgery safety and outcomes.

Memory Dysfunction in Epilepsy40 to 50 percent of people with epilepsy experience memory dysfunction. The subjective complaints range from difficulty remembering things that have happened in the past (e.g., what restaurant I ate at for my birthday dinner) to difficulty remembering important pieces of information (e.g., a new acquaintance’s name). Dr. Anli Liu and her research team at the CEC are investigating the causes of memory dysfunction in epilepsy and are trying to develop better ways to treat these cognitive impairments.

Dr. Liu and her team focus on interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs)—small bursts of pathological activity that disrupt normal brain function. IEDs are not seizures, but they often occur in the same brain areas involved in seizures in people with epilepsy. Patients are typically unaware of IEDs, which may be frequent or rare and vary in their abundance and location. In a recent study published in the journal Brain, Dr. Liu and Dr. Simon Henin examined how IEDs impact performance in a memory task in patients undergoing intracranial monitoring during their epilepsy treatment. Patients were shown pictures of people paired with the name of their profession. They were then tested on whether they could remember the face-profession pairs. Dr. Liu and her colleagues then examined their brain activity during the task and marked when IEDs occurred. They found that patients tended to take longer to remember and made more mistakes when an IED occurred during the trial. Moreover, brain activity patterns were altered for a period of time following the IED, providing clues to the brain signals that are important for memory formation and retrieval. In future studies, the researchers aim to develop tools to disrupt IEDs and restore normal brain activity so that patients with memory dysfunction can potentially regain their cognitive abilities. Dr. Liu holds a Career Development grant from the National Institutes of Health to support this important research. Understanding Language Function in the BrainSpeaking to a fellow human is a natural function we engage in throughout the day. Although we take this process for granted,

speaking involves an intricate cascade of brain events from thinking of an idea to retrieving the words to express the idea to executing complex motor actions to produce the words. Dr. Adeen Flinker studies how this process unfolds in the brain. Patients undergoing surgical treatment of epilepsy often participate in cognitive neuroscience research while they are on the epilepsy monitoring unit so that clinicians can monitor their brain activity through implanted electrodes. Dr. Flinker and his team leverage the ability to directly observe brain activity while patients are naturally producing words to track, in real time, the cascade of neural events across cortex. One goal is to create activity-based maps of the brain regions that are involved in the perception of speech and the production of speech. The team has found two distinctly different maps for producing English and American Sign Language, recently published in the journal Neurology. They also discovered that motor cortex areas that control speech actions also respond to monitoring and hearing one’s own speech production. These new ideas about how the brain processes what we hear and how we plan speech are being tested using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models. In particular, the research team is using deep learning models, which have been successful in applications including automatic speech recognition and image recognition to predict what patients will hear and say based on their brain activity alone. Importantly, the predictions and maps can be compared to the maps of language function that clinicians generate when they perform electrical stimulation of the brain to determine essential language regions. Electrical stimulation mapping is the clinical gold standard for brain surgery, but it is a time-consuming procedure. Dr. Flinker is leading a multisite effort, together with clinicians from Johns Hopkins and Cincinnati Children’s, to validate when and how these two maps match and when they differ. Ultimately, Dr. Flinker and his colleagues endeavor to develop a shorter, safer, and less painful alternative for mapping speech and language function.

Neuroimaging: Deep Learning to Improve Neuroanatomical MRIMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valuable noninvasive diagnostic imaging technique that enables clinicians to visualize and assess brain structure. Many people with epilepsy have undergone MRIs and are familiar with the requirement that they lie very still on the table inside the imaging machine. Head motion during the scan reduces the MRI scan quality, making it more difficult to identify subtle epilepsy-related brain abnormalities. Dr. Heath Pardoe and colleagues are developing tools to detect and correct for head motion during MRI scans. The tools are based on deep learning, an artificial intelligence technique with impressive results in biomedical imaging. The research team has created a computer

program that reads MRI scans, detects regions that have been degraded by motion, and corrects the degradations to produce a clear image that can be used to identify brain regions involved in the generation of seizures. In a separate study, the researchers have used a similar approach to monitor head motion during MRI scans, using a video camera mounted inside the MRI scanner. In the future, these motion detection tools will be leveraged to produce clearer MRI images and improve the diagnostic utility of MRIs in epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

FACES Pilot Research Grant: Peripheral Tau as a Marker of Repetitive Injury from Recurrent SeizuresThe FACES Pilot Research Grant program awards small research grants to NYU Langone investigators for one year with the goal of developing preliminary data to support future competitive research grant applications. Dr. Beth Leeman-Markowski of the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center was awarded a pilot research award in 2020 to initiate a study of peripheral biomarkers of repetitive brain injury from seizures.

Tau proteins play a critical role in stabilizing the structure of brain neurons. Dysregulation in the underlying molecular and cellular pathways that regulate tau formation can lead to pathological accumulation of tau and ultimately brain cell death. Such tauopathies underlie many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and are also found following traumatic brain injury. Recent studies have found elevated tau levels in the brains of people with epilepsy, suggesting a model in which seizures repetitively injure the brain. While prior studies examined tau levels from cerebrospinal fluid, which requires an invasive lumbar puncture, Dr. Leeman-Markowski’s study examines a blood biomarker for tau accumulation in people with epilepsy.

The pilot study will assess whether tau can be detected from the blood in patients with epilepsy, as seen in patients with Alzheimer’s disease or traumatic brain injury. Further, the study seeks to test the hypothesis that tau levels are related to the severity of seizures and recent seizure history. Dr. Leeman-Markowski’s research team has recently completed sample collection for the preliminary study and is awaiting results of the tau biomarker assay. Results based on existing pooled plasma samples indicate that tau can be detected in blood using the biomarker assay. She was recently awarded a VA Clinical Science Research and Development grant and has submitted a research grant to the National Institutes of Health to continue this study.

Top NYU Langone Health news stories as they pertain to epilepsy and neurology as of July 7, 2021.

Q&A: Six Months After COVID-19, Abnormal Functional Out-comes Persist in Most PatientsHealio Neurology—June 22Jennifer A. Frontera, MD, professor, Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn

Get Lost: Why Meandering May Be Good for Your BrainThis article, originating with AARP Magazine, was picked up on news websites across the country.Yahoo! News—June 10William B. Barr, PhD, associate professor, Department of Neurology

Are Brain MRI Findings Connected to SARS-CoV-2 in Spinal Fluid?AuntMinnie—June 9-Ariane K. Lewis, MD, associate professor, Departments of Neurol-ogy and Neurosurgery

Investigators Examine Brain Tests of Patients with COVID-19This article was picked up by news websites across the country.EurekAlert!—June 9Ariane K. Lewis, MD, associate professor, Departments of Neurolo-gy and Neurosurgery

Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. Reminds Stockholders to Vote in Favor of Business Combination with WM Holding Company, LLCThis press release was picked up on news websites across the country.AP News—June 3Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor, Departments of Neurology, Neuro-surgery, and Psychiatry, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

NYU Langone Health Announces Home-Based Brain Stimula-tion ProgramHealth IT Analytics—June 2Leigh E. Charvet, PhD, associate professor, Department of Neurology

Encoding, Storing, Retrieving: How Memory WorksLiterary Hub—June 2György Buzsáki, MD, PhD, the Biggs Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, and professor, De-partment of Neurology

At-Home Brain Stimulation Program Now AvailableMultiple Sclerosis News Today—May 29Leigh E. Charvet, PhD, associate professor, Department of Neurology

Most COVID-19 Patients Have Long-Term Neurological ProblemsThis press release was picked up by news websites across the country.Business Insider—May 24Jennifer A. Frontera, MD, professor, Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Hospital–BrooklynSteven Galetta, MD, the Philip K. Moskowitz, MD, Professor and Chair of Neurology, Department of Neurology, and professor, De-partment of Ophthalmology

Personalized Models Superior to Population-Based Estimates for Predicting SUDEPHealio Neurology—May 12Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor, Departments of Neurology, Neuro-surgery, and Psychiatry, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

Eysz Launches Regulation Crowdfunding Campaign for AI-Driven Digital Epilepsy Management PlatformThis press release was picked up on news websites across the country.Business Insider—May 11Jacqueline A. French, MD, professor, Department of Neurology

Will Red Light Help You Sleep? What Experts Say About Sleeping with a Red LightThe Healthy—April 26Alcibiades J. Rodriguez, MD, assistant professor, Department of Neurology

The Brain and Covid: Strides and SpeculationsDana Foundation “Cerebrum”—April 15Jennifer A. Frontera, MD, professor, Department of Neurology, NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn

The Most Popular Supplements, Says Latest SurveyThis story was picked up on news websites across the country.Eat This, Not That!—April 8Alcibiades J. Rodriguez, MD, assistant professor, Department of Neurology

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