Epilepsy Genetics Program

Annapurna Poduri, MD, MPH
Director

Dr. Poduri directs the Epilepsy Genetics Program as a clinician-scientist, with one hand in the clinic as a pediatric epileptologist and the other hand in the laboratory on a mission to identify the genetic underpinnings of epilepsy.  

Here at Boston Children's, she is also the Co-Director of the Neurology Department's Program in Neurogenetics and serves on the BEST Committee for standardizing best practices. 

Dr. Poduri is a key participant in epilepsy genetics research at the local and national levels. She is the Epilepsy Genetics Benchmark Steward to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the Children's Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded Epilepsy Phenome Genome Project (EPGP), a national, multi-centered research study. She has been actively involved in data quality review and publications from the phenotyping phase of that project, and is now involved in the genotyping phase.

In addition, Dr. Poduri is part of an international effort to understand the genetics of severe early-onset epilepsies. 

Beth R. Sheidley, MS, CGC
Clinical Program Manager  

Beth Sheidley is a genetic counselor and educator with over 15 years of experience in clinical genetic counseling, research and teaching. Her areas of expertise include epilepsy, autism, psychiatric illness and both prenatal and pediatric genetic counseling.

Beth coordinates and sees patients in our clinical consultation program, manages the Epilepsy Core in the Core for Neurological Diseases and serves on the BEST Committee with Dr. Poduri.  

Beth received her BS degree from Cornell University in 1990 and her MS in Genetic Counseling from Brandeis University in 1994.  She joined the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2010.  In addition to her role in the Epilepsy Genetics Program, Beth is also a Professor of the Practice at Brandeis University, where she serves as Co-Director of Research and Professional Development for the Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling. 

Catherine Shain, MPH
Research Program Manager

Catherine Shain manages the research projects for the Epilepsy Genetics Program. She is responsible for recruiting and enrolling patients, managing human subjects research protocols and training and supervising research assistants. She also has responsibilities at the national level within the Epilepsy Phenome Genome Project (EPGP) , including analyzing data for publications.

Catherine received her BS in Public Health Science from Clemson University’s Honors College and an MPH in Epidemiology from Boston University. She has over 5 years of experience in coordinating clinical trials.

Heather Olson, MD
Fellow
 

Heather is a fellow in Epilepsy Genetics for the year 2012 – 2013. She completed her pediatrics and pediatric neurology residencies at Boston Children’s Hospital followed by a fellowship in Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology. For her second year of fellowship she is focusing on neurogenetics with an emphasis on epilepsy genetics. She is actively involved in both clinical care and clinical research.

Sriram Ramgopal, MD

Research Assistant
Sriram Ramgopal is a Research Assistant who has recently joined the Epilepsy Genetics Program. He has been involved in a variety of epilepsy-related studies over the last year. His professional area of interest is in Pediatric Neurology.

Sriram’s responsibilities include recruiting and consenting families in the Epilepsy Core in the Core for Neurological diseases and assisting in analysis of brain malformation data derived from the Epilepsy Phenome Genome Project. 

Sriram is a medical graduate from Sri Ramachandra Medical University and will begin his pediatrics residency at UPMC, Pittsburgh in July 2013