Who We Are
OUR TEAM
PO1 Center Director
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Alice Chen-Plotkin
Parker Family Professor of Neurology
Alice Chen-Plotkin
Parker Family Professor of Neurology
Project Leaders
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David Irwin
Project Leader 1
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Virginia Lee
Project Leader 2
Virginia Lee
Project Leader 2
John H. Ware III Professor in Alzheimer's Research
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Alice Chen-Plotkin
Project Leader 3
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Kelvin Luk
Project Leader 4
Kelvin Luk
Project Leader 4
Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Kelvin Luk also manages synuclein fibrils for the Resource Core
Core Leaders
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Alice Chen-Plotkin
Administrative Core Leader
Alice Chen-Plotkin
Administrative Core Leader
Parker Family Professor of Neurology
Alice Chen-Plotkin also manages biofluids for the Resource Core
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Kathy Jedrziewski
Administrative Core Co-Leader
Kathy Jedrziewski
Administrative Core Co-Leader
Deputy Director, Institute on Aging
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Dan Weintraub
Clinical Core Leader
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Edward Lee
Resource Core Leader
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Vivianna Van Deerlin
Resource Core Co-Leader
Vivianna Van Deerlin
Resource Core Co-Leader
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
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Sharon Xie
Data Management and Statistics Core Leader
Sharon Xie
Data Management and Statistics Core Leader
Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

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).