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Epilepsy researcher wins neuroscience award

Friday July 27, 2007

Westmead Hospital researcher Dr Chong Wong, has been awarded a Pfizer Australia Neuroscience (NSR) grant worth up to $55,000 for research into the use of Positron Emission Tomography in the identification of epilepsy patients who would benefit for surgery to treat their condition.

Dr Wong was acknowledged at the 5 th Annual Pfizer Australia NSR awards ceremony at the Sydney Hilton on Friday, July 27.

An Australian Physicians Independent Committee (APIC) determined the winning NSR grants for proposals for basic and clinical research across the broad field of neuroscience, including but not necessarily confined to psychiatry, pain medicine and neurology.

Dr Wong said: “Despite the availability of 10 new anti-epileptic drugs in the past decade, the management of epilepsy still presents many challenges, including the fact that for approximately 20-30% of patients seizures will be intractable to treatment and are associated with a generally low quality of life.”

Dr Wong said that, in light of the morbidity and mortality faced by epilepsy patients, “respective epilepsy surgery offers the possibility of a cure – even though 30-40% of patients undergoing surgery still suffer seizures post-operatively. The use of Positron Emission Tomography may better identify patients who would benefit from surgery. The ultimate goal of my research is to determine whether PET can improve identification of surgical candidates.”

For more information on the Pfizer Australia NSR Grants visit www.nsrgrants.com.au

Pfizer Australia is the nation’s leading research-based health care company. It develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical treatments for both humans and animals. Pfizer Australia is investing more than $45 million in local research and development. For more information visit the links on this website.