John Q. Trojanowski

John Quinn Trojanowski (born 1946) is a medical researcher specializing in neurodegeneration.

He obtained his M.D./Ph.D. in 1976 from Tufts University in Boston. After a medicine internship at Mt. Auburn Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he began pathology/neuropathology training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (1977–1979), and completed training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1980 where he was appointed assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine on 1/1/1981, and rose to the rank of tenured full professor in 1990.

Dr. Trojanowski held or currently holds major leadership positions at the University of Pennsylvania including: Director of a National Institute of Aging (NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Center (1991–present), Principal Investigator of a NIA Program Project Grant on Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD) disease (1990–2005), Director of Medical Pathology (1988–2002), Interim Director (2001–2002) and Director (2002–present) of the Institute on Aging, Co-Director (1992–present) of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence (2007–present), the first William Maul Measey–Truman G. Schnabel, Jr., M.D., Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (2003–present) and Co-director of the Marian S. Ware Alzheimer Drug Discovery Program (2004–present).

For >15 years, Dr. Trojanowski has conducted research on AD, PD, motor neuron disease, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and other aging related nervous system disorders. Most of his >500 publications focus on the pathobiology of neurodegenerative disorders, especially the role of abnormal protein aggregates (misfolded proteins) in these diseases. The major goal of his research now is to translate advances into understanding mechanisms of aging related neurodegenerative diseases into meaningful interventions to treat or prevent these disorders.

Dr. Trojanowski has received several awards for his research, some of which include:

• MERIT Award (1986–1994) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Metropolitan Life Foundation Promising Investigator Award For Alzheimer’s
  Disease Research (1991)
• Membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1991)
• Established Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on
  Schizophrenia and Depression (now known as the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation) (1994)
• Metropolitan Life Foundation Award For Alzheimer’s Disease Research (1996)
• Potamkin Prize For Research In Pick’s, Alzheimer’s And Related Diseases (1998)
• First Pioneer Award from the Alzheimer’s Association (1998–2003)
• ISI Highly Cited Researcher 2000 (most highly cited neuroscientists for 1981–1999)
• Stanley Cohen Biomedical Research Award of the University of Pennsylvania (2000)
• Membership in the Association of American Physicians (2000)
• 2004 Irving Wright Award of Distinction of the American Federation for
  Aging Research, and the 2005 Rous-Whipple Award of the American Society for
  Investigative Pathology.
• Elected President of the American Association of Neuropathologists (1997–1998),
  and has been or is on the editorial board of several neuroscience
  and pathology journals.
• Dr. Trojanowski was elected to the Institute of Medicine (2002) and he has
  served and continues to serve on local and national aging research committees
  including the NIA Neuroscience, Behavior and Sociology of
  Aging Study Section (1987–1991)
• National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) of the NIA (1994–1998)
• NACA Working Group Chair (1996–1998)
• Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Alzheimer’s Association
  (1994–1997) as well as of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the
  Alzheimer’s Association (1992–present)
• NIA Board of Scientific Counselors (1998–2002)
• Scientific Advisory Boards of the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars
  In Aging Award (1998–2002)
• Alliance for Aging Research (2002–present) and the Association of
  Frontotemporal Dementia (2003–present)
• Program Committee of the World Alzheimer Congress 2000 (1998–2000)
• Chair of the "Biology of Synuclein and Cortical Lewy Bodies Associated
  with Dementia in AD, LBD, and PD" (July, 2001) and “Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease
  (March, 2002) workshops organized by NIA and the National Institute on Neurological
  Diseases and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Organizing Committee of the 6th
  (Seville, Spain, 2003), 7th (Sorrento, Italy, 2005) and 8th (Salzberg, Austria, 2007)
  International Conferences On Progress In Alzheimer’s And Parkinson’s Disease
  (2001-2009).

To help the public understand what is needed to cure and/or prevent disorders like AD, Dr. Trojanowski led an effort to prepare two education films, “Shining a Light on Alzheimer’s Disease . . . through Research” and “Taking the Steps to Healthy Brain Aging”, on Alzheimer’s disease and healthy brain aging funded by a grant from the Metropolitan Life Foundation Grant that air on PBS.

John Q. Trojanowski, M.D., Ph.D.
William Maul Measey-Truman G. Schnabel, Jr., M.D. Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology
Director, Institute on Aging
Director, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center
Director, Udall Parkinson's Research Center
Co-director, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research and Marian S. Ware Alzheimer Drug Discovery Program
Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine