Our Lab at DGfE in Würzburg

From 10 to 13 June 2026, members of our lab attended the 64th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Epileptology (DGfE) in Würzburg. Our PhD researchers Jorge, Annalena and Jana, together with our postdoctoral researcher Tobias, contributed two poster presentations and three oral presentations to the scientific program.

Tobias gave two talks on the diagnostic potential of MRI across different field strengths, including the early detection of postictal diffusion changes with mobile ultra-low-field MRI and a comparison of the clinical and economic value of ultra-low-field, 3T, and 7T MRI. Annalena presented a deep-learning approach showing how clinical information about the presumed seizure onset region can improve the detection of focal cortical dysplasia. Jana presented network-based imaging findings demonstrating clinically relevant structural phenotypes in autoimmune limbic encephalitis. Jorge presented his work on functional connectome fingerprints after hemispherotomy, showing that

patients displayed particularly distinctive patterns of functional brain connectivity.

Beyond presenting our own research, the conference offered a broad and inspiring program covering current developments in epilepsy diagnosis, treatment and patient care. The close connection between clinical practice and methodological research was particularly valuable for us. The presentations and discussions provided new insights into the challenges of translating computational methods into clinically useful tools.

We also gained a deeper understanding of how different types of clinical information are combined in epilepsy diagnostics and how important accessibility, interpretability and practical feasibility are when developing new technologies. Many of the discussions encouraged us to reflect on our own projects from a more clinical perspective and generated new ideas for future analyses and collaborations.

DGfE 2026 was also an excellent opportunity to meet researchers, clinicians and other professionals from across the epilepsy community. We reconnected with familiar colleagues, established new contacts, received valuable feedback on our work and discussed shared research interests. The conference’s social evening provided a relaxed setting to continue these conversations and spend time together as a team.

We returned from Würzburg with new clinical knowledge, valuable scientific input and many ideas for our ongoing research.