Ann C. McKee, MD

William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, Boston University

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).

Publications

  • Published 5/1/2026

    Bernick C, Kleven BC, Alosco ML, Arciniega H, Ashton N, Bender A, Bieniek KF, Cordes D, Cordes L, Katz DI, Keene D, Kinney J, Mandarino L, Matthews D, McKee A, Mez J, Oh EC, Peskind E, Rabinovici GD, Reiman EM, Stern RA, Vasdev N, Zetterberg H, Zhuang X, Cummings JL. Advancing biomarker development for chronic traumatic encephalopathy: Summary and recommendations from the 2025 Leon Thal Summit. Alzheimers Dement. 2026 May; 22(5):e71424. PMID: 42121201.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/9/2026

    Calderazzo SM, Butler MLMD, Breen K, Kanner H, Tripodis Y, Stein TD, Holtzman DM, Cherry JD, Huber BR, McKee AC. Meningeal and infiltrating T-cells are associated with repetitive head trauma and tau-mediated neurodegeneration in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2026 Apr 09. PMID: 41957675.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/1/2026

    Groh JR, Miner AE, Alshikho MJ, Farris C, Cui A, Pettway E, Labonte J, Mosaheb S, Tripodis Y, Adler CH, Balcer LJ, Bernick C, Cantu RC, Coleman MJ, Dodick DW, Ashton NJ, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Peskind ER, Nowinski C, Ly M, Altaras C, Lenio S, Rabinovici GD, Asken B, Rosen H, Cobigo Y, Blusztajn JK, Budson AE, Turk K, Qiu WQ, Goldstein L, Martin B, Palmisano JN, Dixon D, Schneider G, Steinberg EG, Su Y, Protas H, Pasternak O, Koerte I, Bouix S, Cummings JL, Reiman EM, Shenton ME, Stern RA, McKee AC, Stein TD, Brickman AM, Mez J, Alosco ML. Imaging the later-life white matter pathologies of repetitive head impacts: A novel pattern revealed through T2 FLAIR MRI. Alzheimers Dement. 2026 Apr; 22(4):e71351. PMID: 42002804.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/14/2026

    Pennington HE, Shapiro D, Empawi J, Aytan N, Alvarez V, Mez J, Alosco ML, Zhang X, McKee AC, Stein TD, Cherry JD, Labadorf A. Proteomic Analysis of Human Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Brain Implicates Proteasome and Ribosome Dysfunction in Disease Progression. bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 14. PMID: 41726919.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/13/2026

    Nosek SB, Gonzalez Gil S, Abdolmohammadi B, Layden R, Nowinski CJ, Tripodis Y, Martin BM, Palmisano JN, Torres A, Dwyer BC, Katz DI, Goldstein LE, Cantu RC, Stern RA, Stein TD, McKee AC, Mez J, Alosco ML, Daneshvar DH. Younger Age of First Exposure to American Football Is Associated with Worse Informant-Reported Clinical Outcomes in Older Age Brain Donors. J Neurotrauma. 2026 Feb 13; 8977151261424707. PMID: 41688863.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 282 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

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 Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Websites

Education

  • Case School of Medicine, MD
  • University of Wisconsin Madison, BS

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