Ann McKee, MD
Professor of Neurology and Pathology , Director of the BU ADC Neuropathology Core
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 Boston University 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, CTE Center, 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 and National PTSD Brain Bank.
Research Interests:
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.
Key Publications:
McKee AC, Cantu RC, Nowinski CJ, Hedley-Whyte ET, Gavett BE, Budson AE, Santini VE, Lee H-Y, Kubilus CA, Stern RA. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: Progressive Tauopathy following Repetitive Head Injury. J Neuropath Exp Neurol, 2009 68(7): 709-735. [PDF]
McKee A, Gavett B, Stern R, Nowinski C, Cantu R, Kowall N, Perl D, Hedley-Whyte E, Price B, Sullivan C, Morin P Lee H-S, Kubilus C, Daneshvar D, Wulff M, Budson A. TDP-43 Proteinopathy and Motor Neuron Disease in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Journal Neuropathol Exp Neurol, 2010,69: 918-929. [PDF]
Goldstein LE, Fisher AM, Tagge CA, Zhang X-L, Velisek L, Sullivan JA, Upreti C, Kracht JM, Ericsson M, Wojnarowicz MW, Goletiani CJ, Maglakelidze GM, Casey N, Moncaster JA, Minaeva O, Moir RD, Nowinski CJ, Stern RA, Cantu RC, Geiling J, Blusztajn JK, Wolozin BL, Ikezu T, Stein TD, Budson AE, Kowall NW, Chargin D, Sharon A, Saman S, Hall GF, Moss WC, Cleveland RO, Tanzi RE, Stanton PK, McKee AC: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Blast-Exposed Military Veterans and a Blast Neurotrauma Mouse Model. Sci Trans. Med. Sci Transl Med. 2012 May 16;4(134):134ra60. [PDF]
McKee AC, Levine D, Kowall NW, Richardson EP: Peduncular hallucinosis associated with isolated infarction of medial substantia nigra pars reticulata. Annals of Neurology, 1990; 27: 500-4. [PDF]
McKee AC, Stein TD, Nowinski CJ, Stern RA, Daneshvar DH, Alvarez VE, Lee H-S, Hall GF, Wojtowicz SM, Baugh CM, David O. Riley DO, Kubilus CA, Cormier KA, Jacobs MA, Martin BR, Abraham CR, Ikezu T, Reichard RR, Wolozin BL, Budson AE, Goldstein LE, Kowall NW, Cantu RC. The Spectrum of Disease in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Brain 2013, Jan;136(Pt 1):43-64. [PDF]
Carreras I, McKee AC, Choi JK, Aytan N, Kowall NW, Jenkins BG, Dedeoglu A. R-flurbiprofen improves tau, but not ß-amyloid pathology in a triple transgenic model of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain research. 2013. PMC Journal – In Process. [PDF]
