Engineering a Solution

Ashley Galanti’s journey into research and entrepreneurship wasn’t sparked by academic ambition alone but rather by living with her mom and brother affected by epilepsy. 

What began as a high school physics class project has grown into research she’s doing as a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering. She’s working to create a device that can detect early signs of seizures and alert users in advance. 

“At the end of the day, epilepsy hits home for me because it’s in my own family. And I’ve met so many other people who have epilepsy or know someone with epilepsy,” she says. “It’s a very close-knit group of people who have it or know someone who does, just because of how detrimental the impacts can be from that disease.”

Turning education into innovation

A challenging part of epilepsy is the unpredictability of seizures. Knowing when one is coming can give you time to find a safe place or alert someone. Trained dogs can detect the onset of a seizure and offer a warning, but there’s no solution for the many who don’t have access to these highly trained canines. Galanti is determined to change that. 

She’s tackling her goals by focusing her academic work in technical and business fields. She double majored in journalism and electrical engineering in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Engineering and minored in Spanish through the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. After graduating in 2022, she completed a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship from the Terry College of Business and is now in the third year of her doctorate. 

“I want to have that credibility behind me and know that I made this device — that if something is wrong, I know how to fix it,” she says. Ultimately, she wants to feel confident bringing her device to the marketplace.

From research to reality

With the technical expertise, communication skills, and entrepreneurial know-how, Galanti is making progress in her research. She’s working on a sensor chip that could detect pre-seizure compounds released as gases from someone’s skin, similar to what trained dogs can sniff out.

“I want anyone who has epilepsy to just erase that fear of the unknown since a seizure can occur at any time,” she says. “It could give peace of mind.”

She intends to outfit this chip in a smart wristband that would measure other biometrics such as heart rate and body temperature. She hopes the data could give someone a time frame for when they may have a seizure, giving them time to get to a safe place and take preventative measures.

Galanti founded the company AMG Detection with the help of the UGA School of Law in 2022. 

Stories that fuel progress

As she works on upcoming clinical trials for the device and completes her doctorate, Galanti finds inspiration from her family and the broader community of those affected by epilepsy. 

“Hearing personal stories — whether through the Epilepsy Foundation, through an Uber driver, or just on the street — about how epilepsy impacts their lives and knowing that I am doing something to help them really does motivate me,” she says. “It drives me to want to help them and to give them something that is so needed but is not out there for now.”