Given the prevalence of GABR variants in individuals with and without epilepsy, we studied the gating properties, surface expression and structural perturbations of 14 rare variants identified in GABRs and found in individuals with GE in the exome sequencing of 237 ion channel genes project [20] and 18 rare variants found in individuals from the general population in GABRA1, GABRB3 and GABRG2 in the NHLBI Exome Sequencing Project (ESP variants). Here, GABRA1 is linked to epilepsy.