Penn Resources

The mission of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) is to promote and conduct multidisciplinary clinical and basic research to increase the understanding of the causes and mechanisms leading to brain dysfunction and degeneration in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Lewy body dementia (LBD), Frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), Motor neuron disease (MND), and related disorders that occur increasingly with advancing age. Implicit in the mission of the CNDR are two overarching goals: 1.) Find better ways to cure and treat these disorders, 2. Provide training to the next generation of scientists.

The U19 Center and Penn biosample bank that the Penn team has developed over the past 20 years will be a valuable resource to other investigators beyond Penn who pursue research on amyloid polymorphisms and strain. The Penn U19 Center innovates by elucidating mechanisms underlying the heterogeneous progression of cognitive impairment to dementia in LBD compared to AD+aSyn in addition to neurodegeneration mediated by progressive accumulation and cell-to-cell spread of pathological aSyn strains. Thus, the Penn U19 Center seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie AD+aSyn/LBD heterogeneity.

The Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center brings together an energetic team of creative clinicians and researchers dedicated to the investigation and treatment of early onset neurodegenerative conditions. The research expertise at the Penn FTD Center spans many levels of neuroscience ranging from detailed clinico-pathological studies, biomarker discovery, genetics, neuropsychological studies, functional and structural neuroimaging, and cognitive neuroscience investigations of language, memory, and social cognition.

The Home Care Suite is an actual home environment within the Helene Fuld Pavilion for Innovative Learning and Simulation in the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, serving as a platform to facilitate new ideas and tools for processes and systems that promote health and wellness, disease prevention and management in the home/ community setting across the lifespan. Within this space (that is built as a studio apartment) various technologies are installed (for short or long term) and pilot-tested. The goal is to accelerate design and testing of innovative health solutions in the home recognizing that simulated environments yield more unique responses and drive better explorations about prototypes and solutions.