July 19, 2002
John Q. Trojanowski Appointed Director
of the Penn Institute on Aging
(Philadelphia,
PA) - Renowned researcher and clinician John Q. Trojanowski,
MD, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine
in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
has been appointed director of Penn's Institute on Aging.
His appointment is effective immediately. Dr. Trojanowski
has been serving as interim director of the Institute
since the departure of Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA,
to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His main research/clinical
interests as a senior fellow at the Institute are neurodegenerative
diseases, dementia, and memory loss.
"As co-director of the Center for Neurodegenerative
Disease Research, Trojanowski has demonstrated how much
can be accomplished by investigators working synergistically,"
said Arthur H. Rubenstein, MB, BCh, Executive
Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for
the Health System and Dean of the School of Medicine.
"I have every confidence that he will have the
same extraordinary level of success heading our Institute
on Aging, whose stated mission is to improve the physiological,
psychological, and social well-being of the elderly
through state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research,
education, and clinical services."
Trojanowski has been a member of the School of Medicine
faculty since 1981. In 1990, he was awarded a five-year
$3,500,000 Program Project grant by the National Institute
on Aging to pursue multidisciplinary studies of molecular
substrates of aging and neuron death associated with
Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. In 1991,
he became director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Center,
funded by a $3 million grant from the National Institute
on Aging, which designated it a comprehensive center
- the only one in the Delaware Valley. In 1992, with
Trojanowski and Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., as co-directors,
Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research
was established.
Trojanowski's current research centers on the molecular
mechanisms underlying neuron dysfunction, degeneration,
and death in normal aging as well as neurodegenerative
diseases. In his research, he uses immunological, biochemical,
molecular, and morphological methods.
In 1998, Trojanowski shared the Potamkin Prize for Research
in Pick's, Alzheimer's, and Related Diseases. He was
recognized for his contributions to the advancement
of the understanding of the neurofibrillary "tangles,"
one of the hallmark lesions of brains affected by Alzheimer's
disease. Recipient of a MERIT Award from the National
Institutes of Health, he has also received the Metropolitan
Life Foundation Award for his research on Alzheimer's
disease. The National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression honored him with its Established Investigator
Award. A member of the American Society of Clinical
Investigation, Trojanowski has served on the medical
and advisory boards of the National Alzheimer's Association
and the NIH's National Advisory Council on Aging. Trojanowski
has also served as president of the American Association
of Neuropathologists.
Lee, who has served with Dr. Trojanowski as co-director
of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,
will advance to director of the Center, and Dr. Trojanowski
will become associate director.
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Editor's Note:
Founded in 1765 in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine is the nation's first medical school
and continues to thrive as a world leader in research
and medicine. The Penn School of Medicine consistently
ranks highly among the best U.S. medical schools in
the regards to both academic and research performance.
Working with the University of Pennsylvania Health System,
Penn medical researchers and physicians continue to
serve the medical needs of Philadelphians and the entire
Delaware Valley.
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