Dr. Virginia Lee: The Penn scientist who changed how we understand brain disease

UNIVERSITY CITY (WPVI) -- Dr. Virginia Lee is one of the world's pioneering researchers in neurodegenerative disease, whose discoveries of key proteins transformed brain science.

Her journey began amid war and displacement in China.

She was raised in Hong Kong by her grandmother, a Chinese peasant who taught her how to read and made sure she got a good education.

During postdoctoral research in Boston, she met her husband. The two became partners in life-and in the lab.

They moved to Philadelphia and, in 1991, founded Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research.

After years of false starts and relentless work, their breakthroughs helped unlock how devastating brain diseases develop.

Now at 80, Dr. Lee's time in the lab is rare-but her legacy, and the research she built at Penn, lives on through the next generation of scientists.

Penn Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Maloney Building, 3rd Floor
3600 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa 19104