Summary of the Eleventh Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs and inauguration of Editors’ Choice Open Access Articles in Epilepsy Research

R a c b e C t s w ‘ o ( P The lead article in this issue by Bialer and colleagues is a summary of the Eleventh Eilat Conference on New Antiepileptic Drugs and once again provides a comprehensive progress report on new antiepileptic drugs. This is the 10th such progress report from the Eilat conferences to appear in the pages of Epilepsy Research since 1995. The summary in this issue focuses only on the preclinical and clinical pharmacology of AEDs that are currently in development but have not yet been approved for marketing. These include brivaracetam, 2-deoxy-glucose, anaxolone, ICA-105665, imepitoin, NAX 801-2, perampanel and other AMPA receptor antagonists, tonabersat, valnoctamide and its homologue sec-propylbutylacetamide (SPD), VX-765 and YK3089. In a sense antiepileptic drug development represents a prime example of translational research in epilepsy, which is a focus of Epilepsy Research. No drug can be tested in humans without adequate evidence of its efficacy and safety in animal models. These data must then be translated into human studies, first of their safety and then of both safety and efficacy, before coming to market. But translational research in antiepileptic drug development begins even earlier than pre-clinical studies of putative antiepileptic drugs. It begins with an understanding of basic C