Dr. Hsiao-Tuan Chao receives a Child Neurology Foundation grant to study pediatric epilepsy and intellectual disability

Dr. Hsiao-Tuan Chao, MD/PhD, clinical child neurologist and associate director of the child neurology residency program at Texas Children’s Hospital was awarded the Child Neurology Foundation’s 2018 Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation Grant. This grant is awarded to early-stage child neurologist for conducting clinical or basic science research in epilepsy.

The $100,000 grant will be awarded over two years to support Chao’s transition from post-doctoral trainee to independent investigator where she will continue to tackle important questions in intellectual disability, autism, and epilepsy. In addition to her clinical appointment at TCH, Chao is a postdoctoral researcher at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) in the laboratory of Dr. Hugo Bellen and an instructor in the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. She studies the regulatory landscape of neuronal development in normal and diseased conditions using molecular, electrophysiological and behavioral techniques in fruit flies and mice. She will explore how genetic alterations that perturb brain circuitry lead to life-long alterations to cognition, behavior, emotion and bodily function.

The Child Neurology Foundation is a non-profit organization that connects various stakeholders in the child neurology community including clinicians, researchers, patients, volunteers and advocates, so those navigating the journey of disease diagnosis, management and care have the ongoing support of those dedicated to treatments and cures. In 2004, the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation was established as a non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting research in pediatric epilepsy and other pediatric conditions and to support the education and recruitment of physicians in child neurology.