Brenda Porter, MD, PhD

Brenda E. Porter, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Stanford University. She received her MD and PhD from Washington University in St. Louis. She traveled east to complete her child neurology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She went on to complete a combined clinical and research fellowship in epilepsy.

Dr. Porter developed an interest in difficult to treat epilepsy, with a special focus on children with neuronal developmental disorders leading to epilepsy such as tuberous sclerosis and focal cortical dysplasia. Her clinical research focuses on improving outcomes in epilepsy surgery, increasing parental understanding of epilepsy and the role epilepsy surgery plays in treatment. She enjoys working in her lab studying the molecular and cellular changes that contribute to the development of epilepsy. Her research has shown that suppression of CREB a transcription factor can decrease the severity of epilepsy and is hoping to expand on this finding and someday turn her research findings into a therapeutic strategy for preventing epilepsy.

She enjoys teaching students in small groups or one-on-one in the clinic. An especially enjoyable afternoon is a lively discussion while reading EEGs with the epilepsy fellows. She is Director of the Stanford Tuberous Sclerosis Clinic and Medical Director of the Neurodiagnostic lab at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Currently she sits on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Neuroscience Training (NST-1) study section and has helped Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) and the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance with their grant reviews. Active in the American Epilepsy Society (AES) and the Child Neurology Society, she has served on numerous committees over the years.