New gene discovery unlocks mystery to epilepsy in infants

Benign familial infantile epilepsy (BFIE) has been recognised for some time as infantile seizures, without fever, that run in families but the cause has so far eluded researchers. Families with this condition have now been found to carry a variation in the PRRT2 gene (aka interferon induced transmembrane protein domain containing 1) , which may cause the protein the gene encodes to form incorrectly.