Brenda Porter, MD

Stanford University

Brenda E. Porter, MD, Ph.D. is a Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Stanford University. She received her MD and Ph.D. 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.