Who We Are

OUR TEAM

PO1 Center Director

Alice Chen-Plotkin

Parker Family Professor of Neurology

Project Leaders

David Irwin

Project Leader 1

Associate Professor of Neurology

David Irwin, MD

Virginia Lee

Project Leader 2

John H. Ware III Professor in Alzheimer's Research

Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD

Alice Chen-Plotkin

Project Leader 3

Parker Family Professor of Neurology

Alice Chen Plotkin, MD

Kelvin Luk

Project Leader 4

Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Kelvin Luk also manages synuclein fibrils for the Resource Core

Kelvin Luk, PhD

Core Leaders

Alice Chen-Plotkin

Administrative Core Leader

Parker Family Professor of Neurology

Alice Chen-Plotkin also manages biofluids for the Resource Core

Alice Chen Plotkin, MD

Kathy Jedrziewski

Administrative Core Co-Leader

Deputy Director, Institute on Aging

Kathy Jedrziewski, PhD

Dan Weintraub

Clinical Core Leader

Professor of Psychiatry

Daniel Weintraub, MD

Edward Lee

Resource Core Leader

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Eddie Lee, MD, PhD

Vivianna Van Deerlin

Resource Core Co-Leader

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Vivanna Van Deerlin, PhD

Sharon Xie

Data Management and Statistics Core Leader

Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Sharon Xie, PhD

Allison Ward- Administrative Assistant — PO1 Center Administrative Assistant
Allison Ward

We are a team of scientists and physician-scientists from four different departments who are dedicated to understanding why the same underlying neuropathology -- inclusions of alpha-synuclein -- varies so widely in the pace and pattern of spread in the brain, resulting in dramatically different clinical trajectories. We bring expertise in cell biology, biochemistry, animal modeling, cognitive testing, neuropathology, statistics, and clinical evaluation to this question. We focus on mechanisms, with the goal of intervening in these disease processes.

Inquiries can be sent to our administrative assistant, Allison Ward (alward@pennmedicine.upenn.edu).