Epilepsy is one of the most common serious childhood neurological disorders and affects approximately 60,000 children in the UK. Childhood absence epilepsy, the commonest form of inherited absence epilepsy, typically occurs below the age of twelve and seizures consist of short blank spells that usually last just a matter of seconds. Children may have very frequent episodes throughout the day and this loss of consciousness may lead to poor concentration and learning difficulties. Dr Robert Robinson’s project aims to discover the molecular genetic basis of childhood absence epilepsy, by investigating a large number of families. This will increase our understanding of the causes of childhood epilepsy and may allow the development of new, more accurate methods of diagnosis and the design of improved anti-epilepsy drugs.