John D. Porter, Ph.D.

Dr. John Porter is Program Director at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He manages a portfolio of research grants that focuses on diseases affecting the motoneuron (spinal muscular atrophy and spinal bulbar muscular atrophy), axon (inherited and acquired peripheral neuropathies), neuromuscular junction (inherited and acquired myasthenia gravis and slow channel syndrome), and skeletal muscle, (myotonic dystrophy and congenital, Duchenne/Becker, Emery-Dreifuss, facioscapulohumeral, limb girdle, and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophies). He currently serves as Executive Secretary for the interagency Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee and is on advisory boards for Translational Research in Europe-Assessment and Treatment of Neuromuscular Diseases (TREAT-NMD), the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases, the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Translational Research Advisory Committee, the Fields Center for FSHD and Neuromuscular Research, and the Jain Foundation. Dr. Porter received his undergraduate degree in Biology from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in Anatomy from Medical College of Virginia and completed postdoctoral training in systems neurophysiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Prior to joining the NIH, Dr. Porter was Professor of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University. His 20+ year academic research career focused upon extraocular muscle biology in health and disease, including the mechanisms responsible for its novel responses to a variety of neuromuscular disorders.