Dr. Bourdette was previously chair of the Department of Neurology, Roy and Eulalia Swank family research professor, executive director of the OHSU Multiple Sclerosis Center and co-director of the VA MS Center of Excellence-West. He directs a team dedicated to curing and treating diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, and ALS.

He is nationally recognized for his important discoveries in the field of multiple sclerosis and oversees an annual research budget of over $2 million. His team has attracted grants from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, National MS Society, Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis, to name a few. He and his colleagues have received international attention for their development of a TCR peptide vaccine called Neurovax for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and a new therapy called VG1000 being developed with a local biotechnology company, Virogenomics. Dr. Bourdette received his medical degree at the University of California at Davis, joined OHSU in 1984 as a resident in the Department of Neurology.