We’d like to invite you to the Gibson Hotel Dublin on the 21st September – but not for a first date! The home of RTÉ’s First Dates will instead play host to our 2024 National Conference.
Earlier this year we conducted a survey asking people what they would like to see at our conference, and we have put together a packed agenda that reflects the key areas respondents highlighted.
Our annual conference brings people with epilepsy from across Ireland and their families to learn more about the condition and listen to expert speakers discuss their areas of interest or research. Most importantly, the conference represents an opportunity for people with epilepsy and their families to meet others with the condition, alongside the Epilepsy Ireland team.
We hope you will in a position to attend in-person on the day. Early bird and members tickets are now available at the price of €35 until the 1st September! You can buy your in-person tickets - which include a 2-course lunch - via the button below, while details on how to attend online are at the end of the agenda.
Conference Agenda
While speakers included have been confirmed, please note that the agenda below can be subject to change.
9:00 – 10:00: Registration
Arrive at our conference and get registered for the day ahead. Meet our team or other attendees and have a cuppa while you visit our stands.
10:00 – 10:05: Welcome and official opening!
Our Conference will be officially opened by our Training & Quality Manager, Edel Curran, who will go through any housekeeping and warn our speakers about her famous stopwatch (previous attendees of our other conferences will know what we mean!)
10:05 – 10:45: Dr Sophia Varadkar – Developments in diagnosis and treatment of complex childhood epilepsies
Dr Sophia Varadkar is a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist and Deputy Medical Director at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, and Co-Medical Director of the North Thames Genomic Medicine Service, UK. She is also an Honorary Associate Professor at University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London. Sophia completed her undergraduate degree at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and her postgraduate medical training in Dublin and London. Her clinical work focuses on complex epilepsy, the Children’s Epilepsy Surgery Service, Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy and MR-guided Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy. Currently Sophia sits on the NHS England Paediatric Neuroscience Clinical Reference Group and the NHS Genomics Ethics, Equity and Legal Advisory Group. She is Chair of the British Paediatric Neurology Association Paediatric Epilepsy Training Programme Steering Committee. As part of her input, Dr Varadkar will discuss her expertise in the field of complex paediatric epilepsies and developments in its treatment.
10:45 – 11:20: Professor Tony Marson – The First Epileptic Seizure
Professor Marson leads the Liverpool Epilepsy Research Group and is an honorary consultant neurologist at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. Prof Marson’s research has focussed on improving the treatment of epilepsy in the UK and worldwide, and in particular on the assessment of interventions and outcomes in epilepsy. As part of his input, Prof Marson will present a unique insight from a neurologist’s perspective on the decision-making process in treating a person’s first epileptic seizure, as well as discussing the importance of people with epilepsy contributing directly to research.
11:20 – 11:35: Questions and Answers
Following our first two presentations of the morning, both Dr Varadkar and Prof Marson will take questions from our attendees.
11:35 – 11:50 – Movement Break
Take a short comfort break to stretch the legs and chat to fellow attendees!
11:50 – 12:30 - Dr Cristina Ruedell Reschke – 'How epilepsy clocks are ticking?' and Dr. Melissa Alves Braga de Oliveira - ‘Myths and truths about sleep’
Dr. Cristina R. Reschke is a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences and a Funded Investigator at the FutureNeuro Research Centre, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland. As a translational neuroscientist and head of the Chrono-Epilepsy Lab, she leads a research team investigating the link between circadian rhythms and epilepsy, focusing on understanding epilepsy development and creating precise diagnostics and therapies. Dr. Reschke is currently leading Epilepsy Ireland-funded research investigating circadian biomarkers in Dravet syndrome. In this presentation, she will discuss how the "epilepsy clocks" are ticking and how disruptions to these clocks can worsen seizures.
Dr. Melissa Alves Braga de Oliveira is a biomedical scientist with expertise and interests in sleep and chronobiology. She is currently an MSCA-NeuroInsight postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Reschke’s lab at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (SPBS), RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, where she researches the role of brain structures related to circadian regulation in epilepsy. In her talk, Dr. Oliveira will address myths and truths about sleep, focusing on sleep disturbances in epilepsy and providing sleep hygiene recommendations
12:30 – 1:00 – Epilepsy Ireland Updates and Volunteer of the Year awards presentation
Our CEO Peter Murphy will provide some organisational updates on the work of Epilepsy Ireland, and we will also recognise the outstanding contributions of our Volunteers of the Year for 2024. The Volunteers of the Year awards has been a fixture of our conferences since 2016 and recognises the outstanding contributions of an individual volunteer, or group of volunteers.
1:00 – 2:15 Lunch
We’ll take a break from proceedings to pop out for a bite to eat an enjoy our 2-course meal at the Gibson!
2:15 – 2:50 – Registered Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Epilepsy, Sinéad Murphy – Women with epilepsy, the need to knows!
RANP Sinéad Murphy, who has a special interest in women with epilepsy and runs specialised clinics for women with epilepsy in Beaumont, the Rotunda, Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda and the Mater will discuss a number of topics of interest to women with epilepsy with topics including pre-conceptual planning, pregnancy and much more.
2:50 – 3:25 – Professor David Henshall – Epilepsy in dogs as a way to trial a new gene therapy.
Prof David Henshall is a professor at RCSU University of Medicine & Health Sciences and director of FutureNeuro, a national brain research centre funded by Science Foundation Ireland. His research focuses on discovering genes linked to epilepsy and the development of new therapies. In this presentation, Prof Henshall will talk about epilepsy in dogs and METriC, an ongoing veterinary clinical trial of a new drug that targets genes called microRNA, which is showing exciting results. Professor Henshall will discuss how canine epilepsy trials may be the way to de-risk gene therapies before reaching human trials (while also helping to improve the lives of the many dogs with uncontrolled seizures).
3:25 – 4:00 – Dr Aoife Morrin – AI, seizure scents and dogs!
Dr. Aoife Morrin is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Sciences at DCU. Her background is in analytical chemistry and her research interests cover the development of new types of sensors for application in health diagnostics. She has a particular interest in gas detection from human skin and investigates the potential of these gases for disease monitoring. She is a member of Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics working with academic leaders in data analytics to look at deciphering chemical signatures of disease from skin. She has recently started a research project investigating if there is a scent emitted from skin relating to epileptic seizures. Dr. Morrin will join us to discuss two exciting new projects: the first involves analysing the chemicals our skins secrete as indicators of various physiological states and then investigating if a stable, seizure-specific scent-based signature from skin across individuals, types of seizures, and time points can be determined and what this could mean for seizure detection. The second involves dogs responding to seizure scents and the use of artificial intelligence to potentially develop a wearable seizure detection device which can be triggered by the dog’s response to a seizure related scent. Given previous inputs on this topic, we are sure this will be of interest to many of our attendees on the day!
4:00 – 5:00 – Epilepsy Community Meet-Up!
The day will close with attendees grabbing a cup of coffee or tea and meeting with others who are in attendance on the day, or with the Epilepsy Ireland team! As noted, the importance of an opportunity to mingle with other attendees was highlighted in our survey so we have set aside this specific time for people to meet and make connections with others. Note that this will nit be included in the livestream.
Will the conference be streamed and recorded?
The conference will be live streamed and recorded, with conference recordings added to our website in November.
We do understand that attending in-person is not an option for everyone, but we would encourage you to join us in-person if possible. As part of the survey we issued, one of the overwhelming parts of feedback was that the conference give time for people to meet each other. This is why specific time is allocated within the draft conference agenda to allow people to meet and why we are encouraging people to attend in-person if possible.
Due to the costs of offering a hybrid event and live stream, there will be a charge of €20 (€10 for members) for those seeking to access the live stream. Details on how to access the live-stream will be sent in advance of the Conference and the link to join will be issued on the morning of the conference as well. You can purchase your ticket for the livestream via the buttons below:
MEMBERS LIVESTREAM TICKET €10 NON-MEMBERS LIVESTREAM TICKET €20
Further information
If you have any further questions, please contact our team by calling 01 455 7500 or by emailing info@epilepsy.ie. Thank you for your interest in attending our conference and we look forward to welcoming you to the Gibson on September 21st!