A new epilepsy gene, LGI2, has been found in the Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, known from their gift for truffle hunting. The gene discovery made by Professor Hannes Lohi and his research group at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Rsearch Center offers a new candidate gene for human benign childhood epilepsies characterized by seizure remission. The research is published in the online journal PLoS Genetics. Epilepsy is the most common neurological disease in children. It occurs in 0.5 percent of all 2-10 year-old children -- during the ages when the development of the nerves in the brain is at its strongest. Childhood epilepsies are characterized by remission: the seizures set in and last for a while before they disappear completely.
