Research grant to Stefanie Prast-Nielsen
The Epilepsy Foundation (Stiftelsen Epilepsifonden) is awarding a grant of SEK 400,000 to the research project “MAP-KETO,” which is investigating the effects of a ketogenic diet on children with difficult-to-treat epilepsy.
Stefanie Prast-Nielsen, at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, affiliated with Kyla McKay and Katarina Fink's research group at the Division of Neuro, is leading the project “Microbial Associations and Prediction models for Ketogenic diet Epilepsy Treatment Outcomes” (MAP-KETO).
“With this grant, we will be able to sequence the gut microbiota of 100 children with drug-resistant epilepsy who are being monitored during ketogenic diet treatment,” says Stefanie. She continues:
"My colleague Maria Dahlin at ALB has been collecting samples for this project for 10 years. She is retiring this month, so it is excellent timing to take the next step, i.e., analyzing the samples and building prediction models for the therapeutic effect of the dietary treatment. Eventually, we hope to develop a test for clinical use to find good candidates for the treatment, as it is currently impossible to predict who will respond well to the diet. Unfortunately, about 50% of children do not respond well", Stefanie concludes.
The Swedish Epilepsy Association believes that this support is an important part of the joint efforts to increase knowledge and understanding of epilepsy.
The award ceremony will take place on World Epilepsy Day on February 9, 2026.