 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. May I begin by expressing my gratitude to the Brain Foundation and its donors for the bestowal of this research gift? Which will allow our research team at Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne to conduct our exciting project, Brain Glutamate Imaging in Stroke and Correlation with Post-Stroke Seizure Risk. In expressing my thanks, I also speak on behalf of my research collaborators, Patrick Kwan, Terry O'Brien, Bernard Yann, Brad Moffat and Andrew Neal, all of whom are enthusiastic about the possibilities of such a project. Stroke is one of the most important causes of epileptic seizures in adults. While several factors leading to the development of epilepsy after stroke have been identified, predicting which patients will develop seizures after stroke remains difficult. One biological factor which may influence seizure risk is elevation in levels of glutamate, a chemical integral to electrical transmission in the nervous system. Excessive glutamate activity has been implicated in a variety of brain disorders, including stroke, epilepsy and brain injury. Our research team plans to explore the role of glutamate in post-stroke seizures, utilizing MRI technology, employing two techniques called Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Glucest. Glucest is a very new technology developed by a research team at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, with whom we will be collaborating to process our imaging data. Glucest has excellent spatial resolution and can produce maps reflecting glutamate concentrations in different brain regions. We are privileged to have access to an MRI machine which can perform this new sequence, and we will be the first research group to test this modality in stroke patients. Accordingly, we will be able to analyze what happens to brain glutamate levels after stroke. Ultimately, we aim to determine, using these techniques, whether glutamate levels are a valid biomarker of post-stroke epilepsy. That is, an objectively measured characteristic which can help predict seizure risk after stroke. The importance of identifying a biomarker such as glutamate, is that we can then focus on strategies not only to treat, but also prevent the development of seizures in this instance through modulation of the glutamate pathway in the brain. This concept, however, has been one of the great challenges of neurological research for many years, with no treatment yet shown to effectively prevent the development of epilepsy in those at risk. Given the high incidence of post-stroke epilepsy, this represents an area of great clinical importance. Furthermore, glutamate has been implicated in several forms of acquired epilepsy, such as that related to head injury or brain tumours, and our underlying study question is therefore relevant to a much broader area of research. We aim to recruit patients and begin acquiring scans within the next few weeks. I look forward to being able to update the Brain Foundation as our study progresses, and I'm confident our research will contribute to a better understanding of post-stroke epilepsy, and potentially to the development of neuroprotective or preventative treatments. Thanks again for your generous research gift.