Ann C. McKee, MD
William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor
Biography
Dr. McKee completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and received her medical degree from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. She completed residency training in neurology at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and fellowship training in neuropathology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was Assistant Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School from 1991-94, when she became Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. In 2011, she was promoted to Professor of Neurology and Pathology. Dr. McKee directs the Neuropathology Service for the New England Veterans Administration Medical Centers (VISN-1) and the Brain Banks for the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, Framingham Heart Study, and Centenarian Study, which are all based at the Bedford VAMC. Dr. McKee is also the Chief Neuropathologist for the National VA ALS Brain Bank.
Dr. McKee’s research interests center on the neuropathological alterations of neurodegenerative diseases, with a primary focus on the role of tau protein, axonal injury, trauma, vascular injury, and neurodegeneration. Much of her current work centers on mild traumatic brain injury from contact sports and military service and its long-term consequences. As a board-certified neurologist and neuropathologist, she is particularly interested in the clinical, behavioral and psychological manifestations of pathological disease and the neuroanatomical localization of clinical symptoms. She has written widely on many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Multiple System Atrophy, Frontotemporal Degeneration, Corticobasal Degeneration and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). She has been an invited participant in several NIH-sponsored workshops on Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Vascular Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury. Dr. McKee’s work has been essential in establishing the clinical and pathological spectrum of trauma induced neurodegenerative disease, including CTE and Chronic Traumatic Encephalomyelopathy.
Recently, she has received widespread acclaim for her case series featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that found nearly every former National Football League (NFL) player who played at least one regular season game and whose brain then was donated for research was diagnosed post-mortem with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Other Positions
- Professor, Neurology, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Investigator, Framingham Heart Study
- Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, Boston University
- Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students), Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences
- VA Boston Healthcare System
Education
- Case School of Medicine, MD
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, BS
Publications
- Published on 3/6/2024
Culhane JE, Jackson C, Tripodis Y, Nowinski C, Dams-O'Connor K, Pettway E, Uretsky M, Abdolmohammadi B, Nair E, Martin B, Palmisano J, Katz DI, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Goldstein LE, Kowall NW, Cantu RC, Stern RA, Huber B, Crary J, Mez J, Stein TD, McKee AC, Alosco ML. Lack of association of informant-reported traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. J Neurotrauma. 2024 Mar 06. PMID: 38445389.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/26/2024
Alexander A, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Alosco ML, Mez J, Tripodis Y, Nicks R, Katz DI, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Martin B, Palmisano J, Goldstein LE, Crary JF, Nowinski C, Cantu RC, Kowall NW, Stern RA, Delalle I, McKee AC, Stein TD. Cortical-sparing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CSCTE): a distinct subtype of CTE. Acta Neuropathol. 2024 Feb 26; 147(1):45. PMID: 38407651.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/6/2024
Alosco ML, White M, Bell C, Faheem F, Tripodis Y, Yhang E, Baucom Z, Martin B, Palmisano J, Dams-O'Connor K, Crary JF, Goldstein LE, Katz DI, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Nowinski C, Cantu RC, Kowall NW, Stern RA, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Stein TD, McKee AC, Mez J. Cognitive, functional, and neuropsychiatric correlates of regional tau pathology in autopsy-confirmed chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Mol Neurodegener. 2024 Feb 06; 19(1):10. PMID: 38317248.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/30/2023
Montoliu-Gaya L, Alosco ML, Yhang E, Tripodis Y, Sconzo D, Ally M, Grötschel L, Ashton NJ, Lantero-Rodriguez J, Sauer M, Gomes B, Nilsson J, Brinkmalm G, Sugarman MA, Aparicio HJ, Martin B, Palmisano JN, Steinberg EG, Simkin I, Turk KW, Budson AE, Au R, Farrer L, Jun GR, Kowall NW, Stern RA, Goldstein LE, Qiu WQ, Mez J, Huber BR, Alvarez VE, McKee AC, Zetterberg H, Gobom J, Stein TD, Blennow K. Optimal blood tau species for the detection of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology: an immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry and autopsy study. Acta Neuropathol. 2023 Dec 30; 147(1):5. PMID: 38159140.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/22/2023
Su Y, Protas H, Luo J, Chen K, Alosco ML, Adler CH, Balcer LJ, Bernick C, Au R, Banks SJ, Barr WB, Coleman MJ, Dodick DW, Katz DI, Marek KL, McClean MD, McKee AC, Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Palmisano JN, Peskind ER, Turner RW, Wethe JV, Rabinovici G, Johnson K, Tripodis Y, Cummings JL, Shenton ME, Stern RA, Reiman EM. Flortaucipir tau PET findings from former professional and college American football players in the DIAGNOSE CTE research project. Alzheimers Dement. 2024 Mar; 20(3):1827-1838. PMID: 38134231.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/21/2023
Saltiel N, Tripodis Y, Menzin T, Olaniyan A, Baucom Z, Yhang E, Palmisano JN, Martin B, Uretsky M, Nair E, Abdolmohammadi B, Shah A, Nicks R, Nowinski C, Cantu RC, Daneshvar DH, Dwyer B, Katz DI, Stern RA, Alvarez VE, Huber B, Boyle PA, Schneider JA, Mez J, McKee AC, Alosco ML, Stein TD. Relative Contributions of Mixed Pathologies to Cognitive and Functional Symptoms in Brain Donors Exposed to Repetitive Head Impacts. Ann Neurol. 2024 Feb; 95(2):314-324. PMID: 37921042.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/26/2023
Chang S, Yang J, Novoseltseva A, Abdelhakeem A, Hyman M, Fu X, Li C, Chen SC, Augustinack JC, Magnain C, Fischl B, Mckee AC, Boas DA, Chen IA, Wang H. Multi-Scale Label-Free Human Brain Imaging with Integrated Serial Sectioning Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography and Two-Photon Microscopy. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Dec; 10(35):e2303381. PMID: 37882348.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/25/2023
Ally M, Sugarman MA, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Ashton NJ, Karikari TK, Aparicio HJ, Frank B, Tripodis Y, Martin B, Palmisano JN, Steinberg EG, Simkin I, Farrer LA, Jun GR, Turk KW, Budson AE, O'Connor MK, Au R, Goldstein LE, Kowall NW, Killiany R, Stern RA, Stein TD, McKee AC, Qiu WQ, Mez J, Alosco ML. Cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluation of plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein to detect and predict clinical syndromes of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2023; 15(4):e12492. PMID: 37885919.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/24/2023
Stewart W, Buckland ME, Abdolmohammadi B, Affleck AJ, Alvarez VE, Gilchrist S, Huber BR, Lee EB, Lyall DM, Nowinski CJ, Russell ER, Stein TD, Suter CM, McKee AC. Risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in rugby union is associated with length of playing career. Acta Neuropathol. 2023 Dec; 146(6):829-832. PMID: 37872234.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/10/2023
Marx GA, Kauffman J, McKenzie AT, Koenigsberg DG, McMillan CT, Morgello S, Karlovich E, Insausti R, Richardson TE, Walker JM, White CL, Babrowicz BM, Shen L, McKee AC, Stein TD, Farrell K, Crary JF. Histopathologic brain age estimation via multiple instance learning. Acta Neuropathol. 2023 Dec; 146(6):785-802. PMID: 37815677.
Read at: PubMed
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