Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI	B.S.	2001	Biomedical Engineering
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI	M.S.	2003	Biomedical Engineering
Boston University, Boston, MA	Ph.D.	2009	Bioengineering

Kyle Lillis is a bioengineer and neuroscientist studying the basic mechanisms of post-traumatic epilepsy. Epilepsy is a condition of recurrent seizures, which in about 1/3 of patients cannot be controlled by medication. As with many neurological disorders, the treatments are poorly understood and have extensive side effects. Kyle’s approach to advancing our understanding of epilepsy involves development and implementation of novel optical tools to investigate the changes that occur in the brain following injury. During his Ph.D. research at Boston University, he developed high speed laser-scanning techniques for microscopic imaging of seizure activity in rodent brain slices. His current research at MGH focuses largely on continuously imaging neuronal activity in injured brain tissue, ranging in scale from rodent brain slice cultures to pigs in vivo, as epileptic neural circuits forms. The goal of this research is to inform development of new anti-epileptic drugs with better seizure control and fewer side effects.