Leadership

David A. Wolk, MD

Dr. David Wolk is an Associate Professor of Neurology in the Cognitive Neurology Division of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and acting co-director of the Penn Memory Center. 

Dr. Wolk completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins University, a Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and clinical Fellowship training in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School where he also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship studying memory in Alzheimer’s Disease. Prior to his return to Penn, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of their Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Dr. Wolk’s research has focused on memory measures and other markers that allow for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One of the major challenges in the diagnosis of very early Alzheimer’s disease is differentiating the memory failures associated with the normal aging process from those reflecting early AD pathology. As such, his research currently focuses on memory changes in healthy aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and AD using Event-Related Potentials (a form of EEG), MRI (including structural and functional measures), and novel psychometric testing. It is hoped that these methods will contribute to early detection and intervention with emerging treatment modalities.

Edward B. Lee, MD, PhD

Dr. Lee received his medical degree and doctoral degree in Neuroscience from Penn, followed by clinical training in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a practicing neuropathologist in the Division of Neuropathology, as well as co-leader of the U19 Center for Alpha-Synuclein Strains neuropathology core.

His research involves using of advanced molecular, biochemical and histologic techniques to analyze brain tissue in study the molecular pathways associated with neuropathologic inclusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Trauma-Related Neurodegeneration.

His goals include maintaining a world-class experimental neuropathology laboratory and supporting lab members in our collective mission to increase our understanding of the causes and cures of aging-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Lab Website

F. Bradley Johnson, MD, PhD

• Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Dr. Johnson earned his M.D./Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1995 from Stanford Medical School. He then completed a residency in clinical pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Department of Pathology of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2001. He rose to tenured associate professor in 2010. 

Dr. Johnson’s research is focused primarily on the biologies of telomeres, genome stability, and cellular senescence, and how they impact age-related diseases. These studies are supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and private foundations, and have included grants from the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Johnson’s clinical duties include serving as Assistant Director of the Clinical Immunology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he helps oversee tests facilitating solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. Related to these clinical activities, he is also investigating roles for the major histocompatibility complex in the regulation of RNA biology and Alzheimer’s disease. 

Outside of his core research and clinical work, Dr. Johnson is involved in several activities connected to gerontology. He directs a medical student elective course that explores new developments in aging biology and geriatrics (Frontiers in Aging), serves on the editorial boards of gerontology journals (Aging Cell, Mechanisms of Aging and Development, and Frontiers in Genetics/Genetics of Aging), is a full member of the NIH Cellular Mechanisms of Aging and Development study section (Chair, 2016-2018), and has been the recipient of a Paul Beeson Scholar in Aging Research Award (2002-2006) and Dorothy Dillon Eweson Lecturer on Advances in Aging Research Awards (2009, 2012, 2015) from the American Federation for Aging Research.

M. Kathryn Jedrziewski, PhD

• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
  University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Dr. Jedrziewski received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and has worked in gerontology and geriatrics for the past twenty-five years. Currently, she serves as the Deputy Director of the Institute on Aging (IOA) at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is responsible for overseeing all of the daily administrative activities of the IOA, while working closely with John Trojanowski, MD, PhD, IOA Director, to shape and implement a vision for the future of the IOA.

Prior to taking on this role, Dr. Jedrziewski planned and directed Penn Partners in Healthy Living (PPHL), a Penn consumer membership program with over 90,000 members age 50 and older. Before becoming Director of PPHL, Dr. Jedrziewski spent many years as a senior-level research Project Manager at Penn, working closely with various principal investigators on developing research proposals, co-authoring papers and reports, and directing all aspects of the various research projects, predominately in geriatrics/gerontology.

Before going to Penn in 1985, Dr. Jedrziewski worked directly with Philadelphia older adults at the Philadelphia Center for Older People (now Philadelphia Senior Center), starting as a drama specialist, moving on to become the Northern Branch Program Director and finally Coordinator of the Northern Branch. She continues to provide training to direct service workers through Philadelphia's Area Agency on Aging, the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.