BU Researcher Named STAT Madness Contender

Boston University School of Medicine’s Ann McKee, MD, also Chief of Neuropathology at VA Boston Healthcare and Director of BU CTE Center, has been selected as one of 64 contestants in the 2018 STAT Madness competition.

STAT Madness is a bracket-style competition where participants vote for the best biomedical research of 2017. McKee was selected for her work in identifying a potential biomarker for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in living individuals. CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repeated head trauma.

McKee and her team have identified a new biomarker that may allow CTE to be diagnosed during life. Although the incidence and prevalence of CTE is unknown, it has been diagnosed in former amateur and professional contact sport athletes as well as military veterans.

They studied the brains of 23 former college and professional football players and compared them to 50 non-athletes with Alzheimer’s disease and 18 non-athlete controls. They found the protein CCL11 levels were significantly elevated in the brains of people with CTE. They then compared the degree of elevation of CCL11 to the number of years they played football and found there was a positive correlation between the CCL11 levels and the number of years played.

Voting begins Feb. 26. To sign up for a reminder of when voting begins click here.

Please vote and support Dr. McKee!

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