2025-2026 University Lecture
Providence, Persistence, and Resilience: The Road to CTE
Presented by Ann McKee, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Pathology
Ann McKee, MD, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Pathology, is a board-certified neurologist and neuropathologist whose research has significantly advanced scientific understanding of post-traumatic neurodegeneration and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Her work established that repetitive head impacts—including both concussive and non-concussive impacts experienced by athletes in contact sports, military personnel, and individuals exposed to domestic violence—can lead to a progressive tauopathy, CTE. Dr. McKee defined the principal neuropathological features necessary for diagnosing and staging CTE. Her extensive research, which includes the creation of the world’s largest brain bank focused on brain trauma, has been instrumental in recognizing CTE as a major public health concern worldwide.
Dr. McKee has investigated the brains of thousands of athletes, military veterans, and other individuals exposed to repeated brain trauma. Her innovative techniques, such as multiplex immunofluorescence, single-nucleus RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and fluorescent microscopy with 3D imaging, have demonstrated that repetitive head impacts lead to changes in gene expression, neuroinflammation, vascular injury, blood-brain barrier disruption, and the loss of neurons, white matter, and synapses. She was the first to report the association between ALS and CTE. She reported the first case of CTE in ice hockey, soccer, mixed martial arts, baseball, high school football, and college football. Dr. McKee reported the youngest athlete ever diagnosed with CTE (17 years). Her team defined the roles of other pathological proteins, TDP-43, beta-amyloid, and alpha-synuclein, in the development and progression of CTE. Throughout her career, Dr. McKee has consistently raised awareness about the safety risks associated with CTE, particularly for athletes in contact sports and military veterans exposed to repetitive head trauma and blast injuries.
Dr. McKee is the Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and CTE Centers at Boston University, where she is responsible for conducting neuropathological analyses of brain tissue and maintaining the Center’s Brain Bank. Dr. McKee also leads clinical-pathological consensus conferences as part of the Centers Research Seminar series.