Our Competitive Advantage
Clinical Access Most BCI Labs Don't Have
Many BCI and computational neuroscience labs work with archived datasets. At WVU, our stereoEEG cases are ongoing, our patients are in the room, and our research protocols run live in the epilepsy monitoring unit. This continuity between clinical care and investigation is not easily replicated.
50+
SEEG research participants enrolled
200+
Epilepsy monitoring unit admissions per year
8+
Active implantable neuromodulation devices managed
3
IRB-approved intracranial research protocols
Each program connects a scientific question directly to patients we are actively treating at WVU Medicine.
Program 01
Epilepsy Surgery Program
WVU operates a full-spectrum epilepsy surgery program including resective surgery, laser ablation (LITT), and the complete stereoEEG (SEEG) implantation pathway. Our lab has an IRB-approved research protocol that runs in parallel with standard clinical SEEG, enabling us to record high-density intracranial LFP from temporal, frontal, limbic, and parietal structures while patients undergo presurgical evaluation.
Patients give written informed consent to share their intracranial recordings, behavioral data, and clinical outcomes for research. This makes our dataset one of the richest platforms in the mid-Atlantic region for human single-structure electrophysiology.
StereoEEG (SEEG)
Resective surgery
LITT ablation
Phase II-III presurgical evaluation
50+ enrolled
Program 02
Surgical Neuromodulation
Our clinic manages one of the larger implantable neuromodulation programs in the region, including Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS), and Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS). This patient population provides a unique window into the real-world effects of circuit-level neuromodulation.
Long-term device programming data, stimulation-triggered artifact analysis, and stimulation-related mood and cognitive changes are all tractable questions in this cohort. We collaborate closely with Dr. Phillip Konrad's neurosurgical program at WVU.
DBS (ANT, GPi, STN)
RNS system
VNS
Closed-loop data extraction
Programming optimization
Program 03
Depression Biomarkers in Epilepsy
Depression affects up to 50% of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and is the strongest predictor of quality of life impairment. Despite its clinical significance, depression in epilepsy is systematically understudied and underdiagnosed. Our K23-funded research directly addresses this gap.
We are characterizing a frontal-limbic circuit-specific subtype of depression in epilepsy using intracranial EEG biomarkers acquired during standard SEEG evaluations. Candidates include frontal-limbic beta coherence, theta power in the subgenual cingulate, and phase-amplitude coupling within the amygdala-prefrontal cortex axis. This work is mentored by Dr. Helen Mayberg (ISMMS) and Dr. Muhammad Parvaz (WVU).
K23 NIMH funded
Frontal-limbic beta
Subgenual cingulate
PHQ-9 / NDDI-E
Circuit biomarkers
Program 04
Precision Medicine in Epilepsy
Epilepsy is not one disease. Seizure semiology, genetic architecture, structural substrate, and comorbidity burden vary enormously between patients. Our goal is to use high-dimensional intracranial and behavioral phenotyping to identify patient subtypes that predict differential responses to antiseizure medications, surgical approaches, and neuromodulation strategies.
This program is directly relevant to the Appalachian patient population we serve, where healthcare access barriers, economic disadvantage, and high rates of psychiatric comorbidity compound the complexity of epilepsy management. We are developing a SENTINEL-funded care coordination model for patients with comorbid epilepsy and sleep disorders in rural WV.
Phenotypic clustering
Genetic epilepsy
Biomarker-guided therapy
SENTINEL RAG grant
Rural health equity
Serving Appalachia: Why Location Is a Strength
West Virginia has some of the highest rates of epilepsy in the United States, driven by elevated rates of traumatic brain injury, substance use disorder, genetic risk, and limited access to subspecialty care. WVU Medicine is the only Level 4 Epilepsy Center in the state. Our geographic position means we see the most complex, most underserved cases in the region. This is both a clinical responsibility and a scientific opportunity. It also means our findings are directly relevant to populations that academic medicine has historically overlooked.