Knowles Lab News
BPAN Research Gift from Duets Across America
August 2026 — Duets Across America and Million Dollar Bike Ride matching donors presented a $50,000 gift to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health to support BPAN (beta-propeller protein-associated neurodegeneration) research in the lab of Dr. Juliet Knowles. Duets Across America raised $25,000 directly, matched by $25,000 from Million Dollar Bike Ride donors. Duets Across America was founded by the Wyman family to raise awareness and funds for BPAN research.
Myelin Plasticity Grant
August 2026 — The Knowles lab has been awarded its first R01 grant from the NIH/NINDS, entitled "Myelin Plasticity: A Novel Mechanism in Epilepsy." Read more about our research on myelin plasticity in epilepsy.
Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship
Dec 2025 — Congratulations to Nour Omar, Neurosciences PhD student, who was awarded a Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship!
Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute Fellowship
May 2026 — Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Lei Peng, PhD, who was awarded a Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute Fellowship!
Stanford Dean's Fellowship
Dec 2025 — Congratulations to post-doctoral fellow Azin Ebrahim Amini, PhD, who was awarded a Stanford Dean's Fellowship!
Neuroscience:Translate backs childhood epilepsy drug and a neurological monitoring system for hospital patients
The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute has awarded its 2026 Neuroscience:Translate grants to two teams, including Juliet Knowles, MD, PhD and Christopher Lee-Messer, MD, PhD, pursuing new treatments for a rare form of epilepsy and another working on a neurological monitoring system for hospital patients.
Stanford Medcast
"Episode 102 Inside the Epileptic Brain: How Myelin Plasticity Could Change Epilepsy Care" with Juliet Knowles, MD, PhD and hosted by Ruth Adewuya, MD, CHCP.
Practice doesn’t always make perfect
Groundbreaking research from Stanford Medicine sheds light on how adaptive myelination — a brain process linked to learning — can be co-opted by seizures, exacerbating epilepsy. Led by Dr. Juliet Knowles, this study opens new avenues for potential therapies targeting maladaptive myelination. With nearly 30% of children with epilepsy facing challenges with conventional treatments, this discovery represents hope for more effective, personalized options on the horizon.
American Epilepsy Society Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr. Kala Nair, who was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the American Epilepsy Society!
2024 Wu Tsai Neurosciences Retreat
Dr. Juliet Knowles and Dr. Belen Perez enjoyed giving presentations at the 2024 Wu Tsai Neurosciences Retreat in Santa Cruz!
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford Announces Seed Grant Recipients
Juliet Knowles has received a seed grant with co-investigator Jonathan Long for their work "Novel ketone-derived anticonvulsant agents for the treatment of childhood refractory epilepsy".
SynGap Research Grant Awarded
The SynGAP Research Fund announced a $130,000 grant to the Knowles Lab at Stanford University to support research on SynGAP-related intellectual disability (SRID). SRID is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that causes severe intractable epilepsy, intellectual disability and is one of the leading genetic causes of autism.
2023 Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Award
The Knowles lab is honored and grateful to receive the 2023 McKnight Foundation Neurobiology of Disease award! The funds will be used to study neuron-to-OPC synapses in epilepsy.
Vicious Cycle: Epilepsy Seizures Could Encourage More Seizures
Seizures tend to get progressively worse over time in people with epilepsy, and a new study in mice suggests why that might be the case.
CURE Epilepsy Grant
The Knowles Lab has been awarded a grant to study the therapeutic potential for targeting myelin plasticity in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
CURE Epilepsy Discovery: Investigating Mechanism of the Progression of Epilepsy
New research by Dr. Juliet Knowles on the mechanisms of the progression of epilepsy that has the potential to help with future epilepsy treatments.
2022 McCormick and Gabilan Faculty Awards
Congratulations, Juliet Knowles, MD, PhD, on your 2022 McCormick Faculty Award. This award was established to support the advancement of women in medicine and/or medical research directly, or by supporting the mentoring, training and encouragement of women pursuing the study of medicine, in teaching medicine, and engaging in medical research.
Brain plasticity promotes worsening of epileptic seizures, study finds
A brain mechanism needed for learning explains why epileptic seizures become more frequent, but a finding in rodents offers hope for treatment, according to a new study.
The brain ‘learns’ to have seizures more efficiently and frequently over time, mouse study shows
Scientists found that mice and rats that suffered from seizures commonly seen in people with epilepsy developed changes in the wiring of their brains that advanced the disease. A closer look showed that the cementing of these signals was driven by a process that also supports learning, memory, and attention.
Nature Neuroscience: Maladaptive myelination promotes seizure progression in generalized epilepsy