The Eureka Amoeba

Professor Robin Williams explains how a simple amoeba has proved a perfect replacement for animals when researching new epilepsy drugs

The Biologist Vol 60(3) p16-19

“My child has regular seizures and we can’t find a treatment to stop them – what can we do?

Drug-resistant epilepsy, in both children and adults, presents a frightening situation for sufferers and their families. It also raises difficult but important questions for research scientists to solve. Not only are the seizures frightening, restricting, stigmatising and disempowering, they can also cause damage to the brain.

An estimated 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. Approximately a third of those diagnosed have uncontrolled seizures. Improved, more effective treatments are desperately needed and would provide a significant step forward for world health...

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