Danielle Andrade

Research Synopsis

Dr. Andrade’s research interests are in the field of genetic epilepsies and their long-term outcome, or natural history. Her team identified the first gene associated with SUDEP (sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy) in patients with non-syndromic epilepsy. Her team also discovered the genes responsible for different epilepsies, including Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Jeavon’s syndrome, teenage-onset neuronal ceroid lipofuccinosis and progressive myoclonus epilepsy. 

She leads UHN's adult Dravet Syndrome program. Along with her collaborators, she has determined that the majority of adults with Dravet syndrome develop early onset parkinsonian features. Her work in this area is now focused on examining the natural history of adults with Dravet syndrome and other DEEs.

Her work on genotype/phenotype correlations in adults with genetic epilepsies has shown that patients with 22q11.2 have an overall lower seizure threshold, even in the absence of genetic generalized epilepsy or structural epilepsy. Her research has also shown that more than 15% of adults with pediatric-onset epilepsy and intellectual disability have a pathogenic copy number variation in their genomes.