8th European Congress on Epileptology

Starting his scientific career in 1991 after graduating from Medical School of the University of Münster, Germany, and earning his Dr. med. (PhD) in the same year, Rüdiger Köhling has ever since been interested in experimental epileptology. His main focus of work at that time was the involvement of calcium channels in the generation of epileptic discharges, from where he expanded into question on ontogenetic development and epileptogenesis. After sabbaticals at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Canada in the group of Massimo Avoli in 1994 and 1995, and later at the Department of Neurophysiology at the Medical School of the University of Birmingham, UK in 1998, he became increasingly interested in the role of GABAergic synaptic processes in pathological synchronisation, and started his own group first at the Institute of Physiology of the Medical School of the University of Münster, and later from 2002 to 2004 at the Depaertment of Epileptology of the University of Bonn. During thi s period, he also explored the mechanisms of tumour-associated epileptogenesis in a rat glioma model. He currently holds the Chair in Physiology at the Medical School of the University of Rostock, where he continues to focus on synaptic plasticity and the role of interneurons in pathological neuronal synchronisation.