ABC Current epilepsy treatments just suppress seizures using medication.
Melbourne researchers say they have identified the genetic causes of the most common types of epilepsy, bringing them one step closer to finding a cure for the condition.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that causes recurrent seizures and affects about two percent of people in Australia.
A total of 8,000 people in Australia, Asia, North America and Europe were screened using new technology to provide them with a large enough sample to identify the two recurring genes.
The head of medicine at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Professor Terry O'Brien, was involved in the Australian arm of the study.
He told AM the study was a significant breakthrough for genetic generalised epilepsies.
"What we discovered is that there are two genes that seem to be particularly important in determining this form of epilepsy," Professor O'Brien said.
"One is probably not all that surprising. It's in a gene that is called an ion channel, one of the proteins that triggers nerve cells to fire.
"But the other is in a gene that's called protocadherin, which is involved with how nerve cells connect up together, which is something that has not been previously thought to be involved in this form of epilepsy.
"[It] indicates a whole new mechanism by which these epilepsies may occur, and potentially and avenue by which new treatments can be directed."
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Epilepsy study 'brings researchers closer to cure'