O'CALLAGHAN Finbar
Professor Finbar O'Callaghan is former President of the BPNA (2018 - 2020) and Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience at the UCL GOS Institute of Child Health, University College London and (Hon) Consultant Paediatric Neurologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He is Chief Investigator of the International Collaborative Infantile Spasm Study (ICISS). ICISS is the largest study of infantile spasms yet undertaken. It has shown that combination therapy of hormonal treatments (predn isolone or synthetic ACTH) and vigabatrin is more effective at stopping spasms than hormonal treatment alone. He was also Chief Investigator of the NIHR funded multicenter randomized placebo - controlled trial of the mTOR inhibitor, Metformin in tuberous sc lerosis complex (MiTS). This trial has demonstrated that Metformin reduces the volume of intracerebral hamartomas (Sub - ependymal Giant Cell Astrocytomas) and seizure frequency in tuberous sclerosis complex. He is currently developing trials to investigate the use of cannabis based medicinal products in refractory early - onset epilepsies and genetic generalized epilepsies