Bright Minds announces speakers for Absence epilepsy R&D Day

Bright Minds (DRUG) Biosciences announced the featured speakers for its virtual R&D Day on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, from 10:00 am – 11:30 am ET. The KOLs will provide an overview of Absence epilepsy and syndromes, highlighting the burden of Absence seizures, their long-term impact on patients, and the need for novel, effective, safe, and well-tolerated drugs. Invited speakers include: Dennis Dlugos, MD. Dr. Dlugos is a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is Director of the Section of Clinical Neurophysiology and the Epilepsy/Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship and holds the Tristram C. Colket, Jr. Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurology. Dr. Dlugos is a frequent lecturer on topics related to pediatric neurology, epilepsy, and electroencephalograms and has published papers in Neurology, Epilepsia, Archives of Neurology, Pediatric Neurology, and Journal of Child Neurology. Professor Wendyl D’Souza is a neurologist, epilepsy specialist and epidemiologist with over twenty years of experience managing people with seizures, suspected seizures, epilepsy, and their mimickers. He was Head of Epilepsy Services at the Alfred Hospital from 2002-2007 and is currently Head of Epilepsy Services, Director of Neurology Advanced Training and Deputy Director of Neurology in the Department of Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, The University of Melbourne. His current research focuses on idiopathic generalised epilepsies, psychogenic non-epileptic attacks, antiseizure medications and devices, autoimmune epilepsies, and the utilization of national privacy preserving data linkage techniques to map and improve epilepsy-related health outcomes. Dr. Alexander Rotenberg is a neurologist and epileptologist, and Director of the Neuromodulation Program within the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is the recipient of the 2016 Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award from the American Academy of Neurology and was the 2015-2016 president of the Greater Boston Epilepsy Society. Dr. Rotenberg leads Boston-based efforts to adapt methods for transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation and other forms of non-invasive brain stimulation to the pediatric population, particularly to children with epilepsy. Members of Bright Minds’ leadership team will review the therapeutic rationale for BMB-101 and discuss the Company’s BREAKTHROUGH study, an open-label Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of BMB-101 in adult patients with classic Absence Epilepsy and Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy.