Lab Updates

The Chan Lab welcomes Ashton Fulton (Freshman, Harvard University) and Keira Dunn (incoming Freshman majoring in neuroscience, West Virginia University) as undergraduate researchers. Both students are leading their own summer research projects in the lab.

Our in-ear EEG platform manuscript has been submitted to Sensors (MDPI), 2026, describing a novel Pearson r²-derived SNR metric for ambulatory interictal epileptiform discharge detection using the external auditory canal as a recording site. The manuscript was substantially co-written by medical student Ryan Emadi. Developed in collaboration with Starkey Hearing Technologies.

Andy's K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, "Characterizing Frontal-Limbic Circuit Specific Subtype of Depression in Epilepsy Using Intracranial EEG" (Award No. KMH147414A), has been accepted for review at the July 2026 ZRG1 SEP study section at NIMH. This is the primary funding vehicle for the lab's biomarker discovery program.

Andy co-submitted a Research Activity Grant (RAG) proposal, "SENTINEL," with Dr. Ray Guo targeting care coordination for patients with comorbid epilepsy and sleep disorders in rural Appalachian communities. Proposal focuses on telehealth-enabled, community health worker-mediated outreach.

Andy delivered an invited grand rounds to WVU Internal Medicine addressing the systemic interactions of seizures, antiseizure medications, and surgical management, including cardiac, metabolic, endocrine, and psychiatric comorbidities in epilepsy. Designed to improve recognition and co-management of epilepsy among hospitalists and internists.

Andy co-presented a grand rounds lecture to WVU Family Medicine with Dr. Dave Adelson (Neurosurgery), covering the developmental epidemiology of epilepsy, seizure recognition, first-line treatment, and indications for subspecialty referral across pediatric and adult populations.

Andy appeared on the WVU Health Sciences "Live Healthy WV" podcast to discuss epilepsy care access barriers in West Virginia, the role of telemedicine and community outreach in reaching underserved populations, and the state of the epilepsy surgery program at WVU Medicine.

The Chan Lab received a subaward through the NSF IUCRC BRAIN Center supporting early-stage development of an augmented reality brain-computer interface for aphasia rehabilitation using the Cognixion Axon-R headset.

Ho Wing (Andy) Chan, MD officially joined the WVU Department of Neurology as Assistant Professor and Epileptologist-Physician Scientist. He established the Chan Lab (Neural Circuits and Neurotechnology Laboratory) at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, bringing an intracranial electrophysiology and neuromodulation research program focused on epilepsy-depression comorbidity, BCI development, and digital biomarkers.