Welcome!

The Huntington's Disease Center at Penn HDSA logo

The University of Pennsylvania Huntington’s Disease Center is recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, it is the only Center of Excellence in the tristate area. We provide individualized, multi-disciplinary, family-centered care for families living with HD.

Directed by Aaron Lasker, MD, the staff includes psychiatrists, genetic counselors, social workers, therapists, and a full-time coordinator dedicated to treating and assisting patients with Huntington’s disease as well as their families. Our team engages in ongoing collaborative research with several organizations, clinics, and laboratories.

Click HERE to learn more about how you can help our center fight Huntington's disease.

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Brief History of the Center

The HD Center is housed within the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center (PDMDC). The PDMDC was founded at the late, great Graduate Hospital in 1982 by Drs. Howard Hurtig and Matthew Stern and Nurse Gwyn Vernon as a center to provide comprehensive care and education to patients and families, and to conduct basic and clinical research in collaboration with basic scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (now the Perelman SOM). 

After 15 years of steady and expanded growth of its fundamental mission, the PDMDC moved in 1997 to the Penn Neurological Institute at Pennsylvania Hospital, where patient services and program development accelerated to achieve its current status as one of the premier facilities of its kind in the US. During those initial decades, patients affected by HD received excellent care at the PDMDC, and Drs. Hurtig and Stern were active members of the growing HD clinical and academic community... 

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Special Announcements

The UPenn Huntington's Disease Center is a Level One HDSA Center of Excellence!

HDSA Centers of Excellence (CoE) provide comprehensive multidisciplinary clinical services to families affected by HD, including opportunities to participate in clinical research. Level One is the highest certification a CoE can achieve, and is awarded to sites that can demonstrate a high degree of geographic diversity, unique patient programs or offerings that add to the HD clinic, and a spirit of HD community citizenship, including collaboration between HDSA (both nationally and with local volunteer leadership) and the  HD CoE staff. Level One HDSA CoE's have established a formal partnership with another HD clinic, collaborating and sharing resources, including expert neurologists, genetic counseling, and social workers experienced with HD, to expand geographic access to specialized HD care. UPenn's CoE is one of only seven Level One centers in the country, and the only one in the Northeast.

IMPORTANT ADDITION AT THE HD CENTER: PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGIST, DR. NATALI BANER, JOINS THE HD MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM

Natali Baner, MD is a pediatric neurologist with the Division of Neurology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with a special interest in neuropsychiatric illnesses. She was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and enjoys working with Spanish speaking patients. She joined the UPenn HDSA Center of Excellence in May of 2024 to provide an additional level of expertise and care for our patients with Juvenile-onset HD during their HD clinic visits. 

TRANSITION AT THE HD CENTER

We are pleased to announce Aaron Lasker, MD as the Medical Director of the Huntington's Disease HDSA Center of Excellence at Pennsylvania Hospital.  Dr. Aaron Lasker joined the HD Center team officially in July 2021. 

learn more about Dr. Lasker!

NEWS

  • Penn HD Center Chaplain Project presentation peaks interest at the 2024 International Movement Disorders Conference Wednesday, October 2, 2024

    Dr. Carly Marshall, Penn HD Clinic Neurology Fellow, presented a poster at the 2024 International Movement Disorders Conference this weekend and garnered lots of interest from many different groups at the conference. The HD Center Spiritual Counseling-Chaplaincy Project, funded by Philly Cure HD, is a pilot project initiated with the hope of expanding our attention to the health and wellbeing of our patients and families as wholistically as possible. Chaplains can offer support for all people, not only those who identify as spiritual or religious, to help patients and care partners tap into their own spiritual resources, traditions and values for positive coping with illness. Dr. Marshall's poster explained the intention and provided the numbers to back up this successful program! 

          Are you a patient or care partner of a patient seen at the Penn HD Center and interested in a virtual (Zoom-like) session with the HD Chaplain? Call Jennifer Klapper, RN for more information at 215-829-5176. 

     

  • Philly Cure HD Makes Donation to HD Center Thursday, March 9, 2023

    In December 2022, the HD Care Team at the Huntington’s Disease Center at Pennsylvania Hospital was delighted to receive a generous donation toward special patient programming in the Center from Philly Cure HD. Philly cure HD is a local organization offering support to HD families in the local Huntington’s Disease community, by educating the greater community about HD, and by supporting HD research. We are deeply grateful for the on-going collaboration between the HD Center at Pennsylvania Hospital and Philly Cure HD. 

  • Our HD Center Makes Headlines! Wednesday, June 24, 2020

    Our medical students' experiences with the HD Center were featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer!

    Click here for more information!

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