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 12/6/2024
Nicks R, Shah A, Stathas SA, Kirsch D, Horowitz SM, Saltiel N, Calderazzo SM, Butler MLMD, Cormier KA, Aytan N, Tu-Zahra F, Mathias R, Faheem F, Marcus S, Spurlock E, Fishbein L, Esnault CD, Boden A, Rosen G, Xia W, Daley S, Meng G, Martin BR, Daneshvar DH, Nowinski CJ, Alosco ML, Mez J, Tripodis Y, Huber BR, Alvarez VE, Cherry JD, McKee AC, Stein TD. Neurodegeneration in the cortical sulcus is a feature of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and associated with repetitive head impacts. Acta Neuropathol. 2024 Dec 06; 148(1):79. PMID: 39643767.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/2/2024
Abdolmohammadi B, Tuz-Zahra F, Uretsky M, Nicks R, Mosaheb S, Labonte J, Yhang E, Durape S, Martin B, Palmisano J, Nowinski C, Cherry JD, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Dams-O'Connor K, Crary J, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Goldstein LE, Au R, Katz DI, Kowall NW, Cantu RC, Stern RA, Alosco ML, Stein TD, Tripodis Y, McKee AC, Mez J. Duration of Ice Hockey Play and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 02; 7(12):e2449106. PMID: 39630446.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/27/2024
Uretsky M, Nair E, Burton R, Cronin SW, Rousseau D, Tuz-Zahra F, Durape S, Abdolmohammadi B, Baucom Z, Saltiel N, Shah A, Martin B, Palmisano J, Cherry JD, Daneshvar D, Dwyer B, Dams-O'Connor K, Crary J, Goldstein L, Huber B, Katz D, Kowall N, Cantu RC, Alvarez VE, Stern RA, Stein TD, Tripodis Y, McKee AC, Alosco ML, Mez J. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Family History of Mental Illness, and Aggression in Brain Donors With Repetitive Head Impact Exposure. Neurology. 2024 Dec 24; 103(12):e210056. PMID: 39602665.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/4/2024
Safransky M, Groh JR, Blennow K, Zetterberg H, Tripodis Y, Martin B, Weller J, Asken BM, Rabinovici GD, Qiu WWQ, McKee AC, Stein TD, Mez J, Henson RL, Long J, Morris JC, Perrin RJ, Schindler SE, Alosco ML. Lumipulse-Measured Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Alzheimer Disease. Neurology. 2024 Dec 10; 103(11):e209866. PMID: 39496102.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/24/2024
Costello HM, Eikenberry SA, Cheng KY, Broderick B, Joshi AS, Scott GR, McKee A, Mendez VM, Douma LG, Crislip GR, Gumz ML. Sex differences in the adrenal circadian clock: a role for BMAL1 in the regulation of urinary aldosterone excretion and renal electrolyte balance in mice. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2025 Jan 01; 328(1):F1-F14. PMID: 39447118.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/9/2024
Rosen GA, Kirsch D, Nicks R, Kelley H, Mathias R, Cormier KA, Kubilus CA, Dec B, Stein TD, Alvarez VE, Alosco ML, McKee AC, Huber BR. SHARD: an improved method for staining and visualizing multiplex immunofluorescence in optically cleared postmortem human brain tissue. Front Neurosci. 2024; 18:1474617. PMID: 39445075.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/3/2024
Kovacs GG, Grinberg LT, Halliday G, Alafuzoff I, Dugger BN, Murayama S, Forrest SL, Martinez-Valbuena I, Tanaka H, Kon T, Yoshida K, Jaunmuktane Z, Spina S, Nelson PT, Gentleman S, Alegre-Abarrategui J, Serrano GE, Paes VR, Takao M, Wakabayashi K, Uchihara T, Yoshida M, Saito Y, Kofler J, Rodriguez RD, Gelpi E, Attems J, Crary JF, Seeley WW, Duda JE, Keene CD, Woulfe J, Munoz D, Smith C, Lee EB, Neumann M, White CL, McKee AC, Thal DR, Jellinger K, Ghetti B, Mackenzie IRA, Dickson DW, Beach TG. Biomarker-Based Approach to a-Synucleinopathies: Lessons from Neuropathology. Mov Disord. 2024 Dec; 39(12):2173-2179. PMID: 39360851.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/1/2024
Adams JW, Kirsch D, Calderazzo SM, Tuz-Zahra F, Tripodis Y, Mez J, Alosco ML, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Kubilus C, Cormier KA, Nicks R, Uretsky M, Nair E, Kuzyk E, Aytan N, Cherry JD, Crary JF, Daneshvar DH, Nowinski CJ, Goldstein LE, Dwyer B, Katz DI, Cantu RC, Stern RA, McKee AC, Stein TD. Substantia Nigra Pathology, Contact Sports Play, and Parkinsonism in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. JAMA Neurol. 2024 Sep 01; 81(9):916-924. PMID: 39008284.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 7/1/2024
Nowinski CJ, Rhim HC, McKee AC, Zafonte RD, Dodick DW, Cantu RC, Daneshvar DH. 'Subconcussive' is a dangerous misnomer: hits of greater magnitude than concussive impacts may not cause symptoms. Br J Sports Med. 2024 Jul 01; 58(14):754-756. PMID: 38719575.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/15/2024
Culhane JE, Jackson CE, Tripodis Y, Nowinski CJ, 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 BR, Crary JF, Mez J, Stein TD, McKee AC, Alosco ML. Lack of Association of Informant-Reported Traumatic Brain Injury and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. J Neurotrauma. 2024 Jun; 41(11-12):1399-1408. PMID: 38445389.
Read at: PubMed
View 241 more publications: View full profile at BUMC