The Epi25 study. On August 1, the Epi25 study was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Epi25 is the major, international effort to understand the genetics of common and rare epilepsies through exome sequencing, and our current study now presents the first results on what we can see if we look at the genetics of the epilepsies in thousands of individuals, including more than 9,000 persons with epilepsy and 8,000 controls. The Epi25 study finds that individuals with epilepsy carry more ultra-rare, deleterious variants than controls, especially in known or presumed candidate genes. This is a significant finding that tells us about the inner genetic architecture of the epilepsies beyond the role of monogenic causes. However, as with many previous studies at this scale, the first publication merely scratches the surface and provides an enormous amount of data for further studies. Here is a brief summary of the Epi25 study and some of the most prominent genes in the epilepsies that were completely unknown previously. Continue reading →