Newcastle University

As part of the British Science Festival this September 2013 in Newcastle, a science comic book was produced which covered EPIC THEMES. Explaining epilepsy to a younger audience is a challenge, it can seem a very scary thing, specially as the scientific community are still learning about it. Luckily the excellent team of Marcus Kaiser and Cuttlefish were on the case with their comic The Hyperactive Brain. Marcus studied biology and computer science now works at Newcastle University in the field of Neuroinformatics which combines both areas. He observes how the human brain is connected and how the wiring from patients with developmental diseases differs from healthy subjects. By using computational tools he aims to better diagnose brain disorders and to inform about the most suitable therapy for individual patients. Current projects involve the simulation of human brain development to understand the rise of schizophrenia, Tourette Syndrome, and epilepsy (http://www.greenbrainproject.org/ ) as well as the development of novel treatments for epilepsy patients.

Schematic drawings, or comics in other terms, are an essential tool to communicate ideas within Marcus' lab and with other researchers. These are exciting times for the research field as, for the first time, they have enough data to build realistic models of human brain development and brain function. More information about the research can be found at http://www.biological-networks.org/ and there are various Neuroinformatics training opportunities at Newcastle (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/neuroinformatics).

Marcus' comic was printed in the Asteroid Belter and handed out at the British Science Festival. There were 10000 printed copies (tabloid-sized newsprint) that were distributed at the festival from 7th-12th September.