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Alzheimer’s pioneer Virginia Lee wins $3 million Breakthrough Prize for work at Penn

In more than 30 years, Lee has made major discoveries about nearly every disease that is marked by abnormal, “misfolded” proteins in the brain. In 2006, for example, she showed that two of these diseases — frontotemporal dementia and ALS — were characterized by clumps of the same type of protein.

Virginia Man-Yee Lee is photographed at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, September 4, 2019. Lee, a longtime scientist at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, is winning a $3 million Breakthrough Prize for her work on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Virginia Man-Yee Lee is photographed at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, September 4, 2019. Lee, a longtime scientist at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, is winning a $3 million Breakthrough Prize for her work on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer