Dr Jayakara (Jay) Shetty

Jay Shetty's research focuses on the long term outcome in childhood epilepsy, neuro-inflammation, Central Nervous System infections and rare disease clinical trials.

Dr Jayakara (Jay) Shetty

Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, NRS Fellow, Honorary Senior Lecturer and CLaH Module Organiser

  • Child Life and Health

Contact details

Biography

Jay is a consultant paediatric neurologist with clinical expertise in childhood onset epilepsy (epilepsy surgery, long term EEG monitoring, SEEG) and paediatric neuroinflammatory disorders. His research focus includes childhood onset epilepsy, digital innovation and clinical trials. He is active in teaching and supervision for undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

  • Consultant Paediatric Neurologist- Royal Hospital for Children and Younge People, Edinburgh
  • Consultant for Scottish Paediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program
  • NRS Fellow- CSO Scotland (2015-18) & NRS Clinician -NHS Lothian R&D (2018-present)
  • Child Life and Health UG Program Director, Edinburgh Medical School
  • Honorary Reader, CLAH, CIR, University of Edinburgh

Background

  • MB BS- Mysore Medical College, University of Mysore, India
  • MRCPCH (2005) and FRCPCH (2012)- Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, London
  • Research Fellow for WHO and Indian Council of Medical Research- All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
  • Paediatric Training -South East Scotland and Leeds Teaching Hospitals
  • Epilepsy Research Fellow- Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee
  • Clinical Lecturer in Child Health- Dundee Medical School, University of Dundee
  • Paediatric Neurology Specialist Training - Dundee and Edinburgh

Other responsibilities and affiliations

  • Research committee member and BPNA-RCPCH lead- British Paediatric Neurology Association
  • Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health Research Consultation Committee member
  • Chair, SIGN Guideline for Paediatric Epilepsy
  • Neuroscience Expert Group member, Connect4children, European clinical trial network
  • Steering Group Member, Scottish Paediatric Epilepsy Network 

Group members

Current research team

Iva Peh, Research Assistant including PPIE work

Sarah Churchward, Data Science and Epilepsy Database Manager

Megan Hutchison, Clinical trainee

Emily Lancastle, Clinical trainee

Prithi Natarajan, Clinical trainee

Theresa Peltz, Clinical trainee

Niamh Rafferty, Clinical trainee

Jemima Alston, Undergraduate Medical student

Andrea Chen, Undergraduate Medical student

Grace Wang, Undergraduate Medical student

Undergraduate students from Edinburgh University Neurological Society - Epilepsy database

Postgraduate students 

Gemma Buxton, additional MD supervisor

Hannah Gofton, additional PhD supervisor

Francesca Pentimalli Biscaretti Di Ruffia, Translational Neuroscience PhD student (mini project)

Previous UG students

BMS research projects completed: Libby Chatterton Dickson, Josh Paul, Jess Yu, Eilidh Lindsay, Jemima Alston, Logan Vavangas, Charlotte Blackery, Ellie Gillon

Epilepsy Database: Ailidh Ramsay

Research interests

  • Studying outcomes of epilepsy and other neurological disorders to provide personalised information to patients and their family
  • Collaborating to develop innovative technology that improves diagnosis and care
  • Testing novel treatments available through clinical trials (Epilepsy, Paediatric onset MS, Rett Syndrome and Type1 interferonopathy)

Key projects

Edinburgh Paediatric Epilepsy Cohort (EPEC)

Childhood epilepsies are one of the most common chronic neurological disorders and in Scotland, 5000-7000 young people, are estimated to have active epilepsy. When a child is diagnosed with epilepsy, the focus is on seizure management. Apart from the seizures, there are other significant factors in childhood epilepsies including: learning and behavioural problems, psychiatric co-morbidities, risk of injury, side effects of antiepileptic drugs, impact on quality of life, impact on future employment and risk of mortality.

Jay has developed a comprehensive epilepsy database, covering the last 15 years, including data on clinical information, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, neurodevelopment, educational progress, treatment response and other routinely collected data. Further data exploration will examine data linkage and data driven innovations through the EPEC cohort.

Digital Innovation

Jay has been working in collaboration with academic colleagues (Dr Javier Escudero Rodriguez, School of Engineering and Dr Alfredo Gonzalez-Sulser, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences), patient representatives and organisations (UK Infantile Spasms Trust and Epilepsy Scotland) and colleagues from the department of paediatric neurosciences to develop a digital solution to improve early seizure detection in infants. The team’s current focus is on Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome EEG detection using AI, and to develop a remote EEG solution for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. This work will expand to other epilepsies and the team recently received a substantial grant for this research.

Jay is also collaborating with the Glasgow Neurosciences Research Group and the vCreate innovation team on their digital innovation research using carer recorded videos.

Clinical trials

A Novel, Regulated Gene Therapy (NGN-401) Study for Females With Rett Syndrome, NCT05898620, Sponsor Neurogene Inc. Principal Investigator Edinburgh (for trial related questions please contact Loth.RTT200@nhs.scot)

A Study to Test How Well BI 3000202 is Tolerated by People With Type 1 Interferonopathies, NCT06878365, Sponsor Boehringer Ingelheim. Principal Investigator Edinburgh (to start soon)

A Study to Evaluate Safety and Efficacy of Ocrelizumab in Comparison With Fingolimod in Children and Adolescents With Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) (Operetta 2), NCT05123703 Sponsor: Roche. Principal Investigator Edinburgh

ANAVEX2-73 Study in Pediatric Patients With Rett Syndrome (EXCELLENCE), NCT04304482, Sponsor Anavex Life Sciences Corp. Principal Investigator Edinburgh

Safety and Efficacy of Fingolimod in Pediatric Patients With Multiple Sclerosis, NCT01892722, Sponsor Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Principal Investigator Edinburgh and UK Chief Investigator for the long term safety extension study.

A Study of TEV-50717 (Deutetrabenazine) for the Treatment of Dyskinesia in Cerebral Palsy in Children and Adolescents (RECLAIM-DCP), NCT03813238, Sponsor: Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D, Inc. Principal Investigator Edinburgh

Pharmacological Management of Seizures Post Traumatic Brain Injury (MAST), NCT04573803, Sponsor Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, NIHR Funding. Paediatric Principal Investigator Edinburgh

Investigating the Role of Early Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment for Children With Encephalitis (IgNiTE), ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02308982, Sponsor University of Oxford. Principal Investigator, Edinburgh

A Multicentre randomiSed Controlled TRial of IntraVEnous Immunoglobulin Versus Standard Therapy for Transverse Myelitis (STRIVE), ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02398994, Sponsor Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Principal Investigator, Edinburgh

Antiepileptic Efficacy Study of GWP42003-P in Children and Young Adults With Dravet Syndrome (GWPCARE1), ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02091375 Sponsor Jazz Pharmaceuticals.  Sub- Principal Investigator, Edinburgh

SANAD2 trial in epilepsy. ISRCTN registry, 30294119, Sponsor, University of Liverpool & Walton Centre, Sub- Principal Investigator, Edinburgh

Inhibition of Reverse Transcription in Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome (AGS-RTI), ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04731103, Sponsor University of Edinburgh. Sub-Principal Investigator, Edinburgh 

An Open-Label Study to Investigate the Safety of Single and Multiple Ascending Doses in Children and Adolescents With Dravet Syndrome, ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04442295, Sponsor Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. Sub-Principal Investigator, Edinburgh 

Prophylactic Antibiotics To Prevent Chest Infections in Children with Neurological Impairment ISRCTN71955516. Sponsor, University of Liverpool & Walton Centre, Sub- Principal Investigator, Edinburgh

Local investigator and collaborator for research studies 

Neurodevelopmental outcome in early onset epilepsy (NEUROPROFILES Study). Professor Chin, Edinburgh

Genetic and Autoimmune Epilepsy Study- Professor Zuber, Glasgow

Sleep and Epilepsy study, Dr Don Urquhart, Edinburgh

Stratification of childhood epilepsy through detailed phenotyping and whole genome sequencing to identify novel genetic aetiologies and genetic modifiers of treatment response. Professor Zuberi and Dr Symonds, Glasgow

EPISCOT study - Dr Symonds, Glasgow

Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital London Neuroscience Research Team - Multicenter Epilepsy Lesion Detection project and UK Stereotactic EEG study

Enterovirus D 68 associated Acute Flaccid Myelitis- EU Collaboration. Professor H.G.M. (Bert) Niester and Dr Jelte Helfferich

Funding

NRS Career Researcher Fellowship funding ~£25K/Year (2015-ongoing)-PI

Clinical trial funding (3-NIHR and 6-Commercial)- Collaborating local PI

Charity Funding for Epilepsy Research (UKIST & ECHC) £23K- 2025-26-PI

MRC Harmonised IAA, UoE- £60K (2024-25)- Co-applicant, PI- Dr Javier Escudero Rodriguez

MRC UK Grant, £1.7 Million- Inhibition of reverse transcription in type I interferon mediated neuropathology. (2019-24)- Co-applicant, PI-Professor Yanick Crow

ERUK Grant, Digital innovation of video diagnosis in epilepsy evaluation. £49,726 -2021-22. Co-applicant, PI- Professor Sameer Zuberi, Glasgow

Action Medical Research Grant, £43,868, 2017-03 to 2019-03). Study of Sleep and Epilepsy in Children. Co-applicant, PI- Dr Don Urquhart

Publications

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