Clinical/biomedical

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.

Founded as the Institute of Neurological Sciences in 1953 by the visionary professor of Anatomy, Dr. Louis Flexner, our Institute was renamed in 1985 to reflect the keen interest and support that corporate magnate David Mahoney brought to neuroscience. MINS founded and continues to provide substantial support for the Neuroscience Graduate Group (NGG), Penn’s award-winning doctoral program in neuroscience.

The mission of the Center is to influence, via rigorous evidence, practices and policies designed to enhance transitions in health and healthcare, improve health and quality of life outcomes and promote wiser use of resources for the growing population of chronically ill adults in the U.S. and globally. 

The mission of the Institute on Aging (IOA) at the University of Pennsylvania is to improve the health of older adults by increasing the quality and quantity of clinical and basic research as well as educational programs focusing on normal aging and aging-related diseases across the entire Penn campus.

The Penn Memory Center is a single, unified Penn Medicine source for those age 65 and older seeking evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, information, and research opportunities related to symptoms of progressive memory loss, and accompanying changes in thinking, communication and personality. The Center offers state-of-the-science diagnosis, treatment and research, focusing on individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and other age-related progressive memory disorders.

The Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB) seeks to understand the inter-related clinical, ethical, and policy implications of applying precision medicine to the brain and to translate these discoveries into practice. The power of P3MB is its multidisciplinary collaborations. The work is made possible by grants from the Alzheimer’s Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute on Aging, and generous philanthropic support.