Epilepsia® Prize 2009

Julia Jacobs-LeVan

Dr. Julia Jacobs was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. She studied medicine at the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz. During her residency she worked under Professor Stephani in the Department of Neuropediatrics and in the “Northern German Epilepsy Centre for Children” in Kiel, with her clinical work focused on pediatric epileptic disorders.

She was a member of the EEG-fMRI study group of Professor Siniatchkin at the University of Kiel and with this technique investigated children with refractory focal epilepsy. She received two grants from the University of Kiel and the German Research Foundation to implement this technique for pediatric use.

As part of this project she met Professor Gotman and spent three months at the Montreal Neurological Institute to improve her technical skills in the EEG-fMRI research group in 2006. She returned to the MNI in 2007. Her new research focus was to evaluate the pathophysiological relevance of High Frequency Oscillations with respect to interictal epileptic discharges, different epileptogenic lesions and postsurgical outcome. These oscillations can be identified in intracranial electrode recordings and are indicative of areas of epileptogenesis. The work of Dr. Jacobs has shown that the occurrence of these oscillations, identified on relatively short recordings, could constitute a novel marker of epileptogenicity providing additional information independent of other modalities used in the investigation of epilepsy patients. Much of this work was done with the important collaboration of Dr. François Dubeau. Dr. Jacobs received the Preston Robb Fellowship of the MNI.

In 2009 Dr. Jacobs returned to her home country. She is now completing her residency with Professor Korinthenberg in the neuropediatric department at the University of Freiburg. She is also continuing the evaluation of high frequency oscillation as a research fellow in the group of Professor Schulze-Bonhage at the Freiburg Epilepsy Centre. Dr. Jacobs has published 19 refereed articles.

The 2008 Morris-Coole Prize will be awarded to Dr. Julia Jacobs during the Opening Ceremony of the 28th International Epilepsy Congress in Budapest. Her paper was titled: “Interictal highfrequency oscillations (80–500 Hz) are an indicator of seizure onset areas independent of spikes in the human epileptic brain.” (Epilepsia, 49: Issue 11, pages 1863-1907, 2008).