After a year of missing catching up with my fellow epilepsy professionals, it has been so exciting to attend the 2021 American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting in Chicago! I have been enjoying the mix of sightseeing (yes, I saw the “bean”), deep dish pizza (is it really pizza?!), Chicago hot dogs (better than Seattle hot dogs, unfortunately), and of course, science.

This year’s scientific highlights for me have been:

1. A pig epilepsy monitoring unit for studying post-traumatic brain injury epileptogenesis.
2. Major advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of SUDEP.
3. A groundswell of research and developments for SCN8A-associated epilepsy (Cute Syndrome).
4. A novel GABA-transaminase inhibitor in development by EISAI. It’s neat to see that old targets may still be of interest.