We are excited to announce that Dr. Adam Naj is receiving the Publication of the Year Award from the Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders Professional Interest Area (PIA), an initiative of the Alzheimer’s Association, recognizing a landmark study recently published in the September 2024 issue of Nature Communications. Dr. Naj co-led the analyses and is the senior author of the paper, “Genetic, transcriptomic, histological, and biochemical analysis of progressive supranuclear palsy implicates glial activation and novel risk genes.”
This multidisciplinary study, led by first author Dr. Kurt Farrell at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, combined the largest-to-date genome-wide association study (GWAS) of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) to identify risk-increasing genetic variants, with functional genomic and cellular modeling exploring the possible downstream effects of these variants. This work not only identified genes carrying increased risk for PSP but identified how these genes affect the processes involved in developing disease. PSP is a rare neurodegenerative disease primarily affecting physical movement, cognition, balance, and eye movement, and is relatively rare with a prevalence of 18 cases per 100,000 people. Famous persons with PSP have included country singer Linda Ronstadt and actor Robin Williams.
The work represents a major collaborative effort between Penn, Mount Sinai, and the UCLA Medical School, with key contributors from Penn including Drs. Jerry Schellenberg and Li-San Wang, principal investigators of the PSP Genetics Study at Penn.
Dr. Naj will accept the award on behalf of the investigative team at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Toronto on Saturday, July 26, 2025. This recognition underscores the impact of the team’s work in advancing understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.