Spanning neuroscience and cell biology, two students are working together to investigate spreading depolarizations—waves of electrical failures that move through brain tissue and are linked to concussions, brain injuries, epilepsy, and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Benjamin Riley (NEURO ’27) and Tyler Bowman (NEURO ’26) combine their expertise to uncover why some brains are more susceptible to these events than others. Their collaboration aims to shed light on mechanisms that may one day lead to improved diagnosis, treatment, and prevention strategies.
Spreading depolarizations affect millions of people in the U.S., and for Bowman—whose wife lives with epilepsy—the work carries personal meaning. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind these events could lead to more effective treatments and prevention strategies down the road. “It’s been really cool being part of this research, knowing that I can help other people by learning more,” says Bowman.
Riley’s fascination with the brain led him to pursue neuroscience and join Dr. Ryley Parrish’s lab, while Bowman gravitated toward cell biology after connecting with Dr. Matt Bailey. Their paths converged when Parrish and Bailey realized that their research required skills neither lab had on its own: neuroscience and wet-lab experience on one side and computational and bioinformatics skills on the other. “We live in such a specialized world,” Riley remarks. “You get so good at something, and you just don’t have enough bandwidth to get that good at everything.”
To uncover what makes the brain susceptible to spreading depolarizations, Riley’s team induced seizures in brain slices, recorded the activity, and then passed the sectioned tissue to Bowman’s team. They then used single-cell transcriptomics to analyze the RNA of individual cells. After processing the data, one region of the brain consistently showed heightened activity during seizures. The students then compared it with another region using open-source datasets, revealing a striking difference: Piezo1, the mechanoreceptor ion channel gene, was expressed at higher levels in the more active region.
Riley, Bowman, and their teams identified Piezo1 as a promising marker for predicting spreading depolarizations. Because Piezo1 regulates an ion channel that influences how easily neurons fire, the students hypothesized that it could play a major role in triggering these events. Their next step is to test compounds that block Piezo1 to see whether inhibiting the gene makes spreading depolarizations more or less likely.
Riley recognizes their work as a crucial piece of a larger scientific puzzle, forming the kind of foundational knowledge that future breakthroughs depend on. “No increase in knowledge is ever going to be wasted,” he notes. This has given Riley a deeper respect for how hard-won scientific knowledge is, learning that research requires patience, repetition, and resilience.
Both students also acknowledged God’s hand in their work. Bowman’s faith has shaped his approach to research obstacles: “We’re going to have setbacks, we’re going to have struggles, but through Christ, we can go forward and move past these barriers.” Riley adds that the more he learns about the human body, the more he believes that nothing is accidental. He has seen “the fingerprints of an intelligent creator that knew exactly what He was doing” and that gives him confidence in his research.
Bowman and Riley’s scientific contribution won them first place in the cell biology category at the Life Sciences Research Conference. Though the award is reassuring, a sign that their research is on the right track, both Bowman and Riley acknowledge that the work itself is what matters. “Even if we’d gotten dead last,” Riley shares, “it wouldn’t change how I feel about the work.” For both students, it’s the research that gets them back into the lab each day and the potential it has moving forward.