Lead Editor: 

Annapurna H. Poduri, MD, MPH.

Ann is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children's Hospital. Ann’s interest in epilepsy genetics stems from her clinical experience as a pediatric epileptologist in training, which led her to pursue a career in translational neurogenetics. The Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children’s Hospital focuses on the discovery of germline and mosaic variants in patients with epilepsy, returning results to patients, and modeling epilepsy genes in zebrafish and cell-based models with a goal of achieving precision medicine for patients with epilepsy.

Deputy Editors:

Alfred L. George Jr., MD 

Alfred is Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He directs the Channelopathy-associated Epilepsy Research Center without Walls, supported by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, connecting patient variants with bench science.

Erin L. Heinzen, PharmD, PhD 

Erin is Associate Professor of Pharmacy and Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has served as Principal Investigator of the Sequencing, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Core of the Epi4K Consortium. She is actively engaged in research into somatic mosaic mutation in epilepsy and identifying the mechanisms underlying SLC35A2 epilepsy.

Associate Editor:

Sara James, Journalist and Author, Melbourne, Australia. 

Sara is a renowned broadcast journalist who is helping the series editors to tell the evolving story of epilepsy genetics. Sara is also an advocate for research in epilepsy and community-academic partnerships in genetic epilepsy; she is Vice President of the KCNQ2 Cure Alliance and a co-founder of Genetic Epilepsy Team Australia. The first Element in this series features Sara’s personal perspective as a parent of a child with genetic epilepsy as well as her efforts to channel her own professional expertise to rally communities and move toward progress in genetic epilepsies that will translate into improved treatment and quality of life for people with epilepsy.