Announcement

PHILADELPHIA – John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Penn’s Institute on Aging, has been honored with the American Association of Neuropathologists’ (AANP) Award for Meritorious Contributions to Neuropathology. The award is given each year to physicians who have made significant contributions to the field of neuropathology and provided service to the AANP.

Trojanowski is recognized for his long career as a leader and pioneer in the research and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The AANP described his work as a “steady contribution to the study of neurodegenerative disease that spans many diseases, disciplines, genes and domains.” Trojanowski has had a central role in building Penn’s team into an international center of neurodegenerative disease research excellence.

The organization also cited his aptitude for collaboration as one of many reasons for his broad and world-wide impact on the field. His most significant collaborator is his wife, Virginia Lee, PhD, the John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer’s Research, also in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn. The pair has worked closely as a “power couple” in the world of neuropathology for decades.

Trojanowski earned his MD and PhD from Tufts University before going on train in pathology/neuropathology at Harvard and Penn under Dr. E.P. Richardson and the late Dr. Nicholas Gonatas, respectively.

Trojanowski joins a long list of Penn neuropathologists to be recognized by the AANP that also includes Lucy B. Rorke (1999), Nicholas K. Gonatas (2009), William W. Schlaepfer (2011), with more honorees representing Penn than any other institution in the last 15 years.

Since its foundation in the 1930s, the AANP's mission is to advance the science, teaching and training of the diseases of the nervous system and the practice of neuropathology.

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.

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