About Us

The Epilepsy Research Centre is Australia's leading clinical epilepsy research group.  It comprises clinical researchers and scientists from research teams at the University of Melbourne, Austin Health and the Brain Research Institute (now part of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes) working together to better understand the causes, treatment and outcome of epilepsy.  We have satellite clinical epilepsy genetics teams at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in NSW and the University of Otago in Wellington New Zealand.  In addition, we work closely with molecular geneticists and basic scientists at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Adelaide, and the University of Adelaide, basic neuroscientists at the Florey Neuroscience Institutes campus in Parkville, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and the University of Queensland.  Our large collaborative group has been supported by NHMRC Program Grants since 2001; we have just received our third consecutive NHMRC Program grant for the period 2011 to 2015.  We have a strong international reputation in many areas, including the clinical and molecular genetics of epilepsy in children and adults, imaging techniques looking at both the structure and function of the brain, surgical treatment and outcome studies, clinical trials, and neurobehavioural aspects of epilepsy.

Many research collaborations have been established over the years and the number of people associated with the group has grown, as have the areas and disciplines being studied. The Centre is part of the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne at Austin Health and is co-located with the Brain Research Institute in the recently built Melbourne Brain Centre at Austin Health with many individuals being members of both.

The Epilepsy Research Centre, directed by Prof. Samuel Berkovic, also incorporates the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program (CEP) which is a coordinated clinical service providing specialist care to patients with epilepsy including both adults and children.  The CEP cares for people with epilepsy including those with new onset seizures and those individuals with difficult to control epilepsy who may be considered for epilepsy surgery.  In addition to the Epilepsy Clinic at the Austin Hospital, we have also developed a First Seizure Clinic, enabling rapid diagnosis and appropriate management at the onset of the seizures.

How to contact us:

If you would like to know more about the Epilepsy Research Centre you can:

Call us at: +613 9035 7330 or 7344
Please note office hours for enquiries are 9:00am to 5:00pm, but phone messages can be left on an answering machine.

E-mail us at: epilepsy-austin@unimelb.edu.au
If your inquiry if for a particular member of staff please mark your email for their attention in the subject line.

Fax us at: +613 9496 2291

Write to us or visit us at:

Melbourne Brain Centre
245 Burgundy Street
Austin Health
Heidelberg
Victoria 3084
Australia

Melways reference: Map 31 J4