Virginia Man-Yee Lee, Ph.D., is the John H. Ware 3rd Endowed Professor in Alzheimer’s Research at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Lee’s research focuses on disease proteins that form pathological inclusions in hereditary and sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related neurodegenerative disorders of aging. Her work demonstrated that tau, alpha-synuclein and TDP-43 proteins form unique brain aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases and provided critical evidence that aggregation of brain proteins is a common mechanistic theme in diverse neurodegenerative diseases including AD, PD, FTLD, ALS and related disorders. Significantly, Lee’s studies implicated the abnormal aggregation of tau, alpha-synuclein and TDP-43 in mechanisms that compromise neuronal viability. Most importantly, this research has opened up new avenues of research to identify targets for drug discovery to develop better treatments for these disorders.
https://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p12536
