Dec 9, 2024

Heather C. Mefford, MD, PhD

2024 Basic Science Research Award, Presented during the 2024 Lombroso Lecture at the 2024 AES Annual Meeting

Meet the 2024 AES Award Recipients
heather mefford

Dr. Heather Mefford is a physician scientist and Member in the Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She completed her MD and PhD in Genetics at University of Washington, after which she completed Pediatrics and Medical Genetics training at UW and Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Her research is dedicated to gene discovery in rare pediatric epilepsies and related neurodevelopmental disorders, with the long-term goal of using information about genetic etiology to develop more precise and effective therapies.

Starting with the discovery of recurrent deletions as risk factors for epilepsy, her research helped define the genetic landscape of various types of epilepsy. She has led or contributed to >25 novel gene discoveries in the developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, transforming clinical genetic diagnosis for affected children.

Now, using engineered and patient-derived cells, her group develops cellular models of genetic epilepsies for characterization and testing potential targeted therapies. She is a scientific advisor for several patient advocacy groups, has served on numerous AES and ILAE committees, currently co-chairs the ClinGen Epilepsy Gene & Variant Curation Working Groups, was co-PI for the Epi4K Consortium, and is Secretary of the Board for the American Society of Human Genetics.  

 

About the Basic Science Research Award

AES Research Awards are given annually to active scientists and clinicians working in all aspects of epilepsy research. These awards are designed to recognize professional excellence reflected in a distinguished history of research of important promise for the improved understanding and treatment of epilepsy.