Judith Steen: Tau is a Molecular Clock Reflective of Disease Progression and Type

Dear MDC scientists,

We are very pleased to announce — on short notice — a special seminar by Prof. Judith Steen, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Neuroproteomics Laboratory at the FM Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children’s Hospital.
Prof. Steen’s pioneering research integrates cutting-edge proteomics and neurobiology to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases. Her talk will offer valuable insights into Tau biology and biomarker discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease, a topic of broad interest to the MDC community given our focus on molecular mechanisms of brain function, protein dynamics, and disease progression.

We warmly invite all MDC researchers to join us for this exciting seminar.

This seminar takes place onsite and online via Zoom.

Biography of Judith A. Steen

Dr. Judith Steen is a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Neuroproteomics Laboratory in the FM Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children's Hospital. Her laboratory has revolutionized the study of neurodegenerative disease through groundbreaking methodologies and transformative discoveries.
Prof. Steen pioneered the FLEXIQuant platform—a suite of mass spectrometry-based tools enabling unprecedented quantification of protein post-translational modifications (PTMs). Her discovery that tau PTMs accumulate in an ordered, disease-stage-specific manner fundamentally changed the understanding of Alzheimer's disease progression. This work led to the identification of phospho-217 tau as the earliest AD differentiator, now an FDA-approved biomarker for early diagnosis—a landmark achievement that translates basic research into clinical impact. Furthermore, her work established that AD needs to be treated in a stage-specific manner.
Her laboratory also discovered that stress triggers translation of noncoding RNA into proteins, opening entirely new research areas in neurodegeneration. In a recent study comparing multiple tauopathies, Prof. Steen overturned the long-held assumption that tau carries identical modifications across diseases, revealing that each condition has unique molecular signatures requiring disease-specific therapeutic approaches.
In summary, the Steen Laboratory develops computational algorithms and quantitative proteomics methods, interfacing multi-omics data with clinical information to understand neurodegeneration from aging, infection, injury, and genetics. With >12,000 citations, >$20M in research funding, and publications in Cell, Nature, and Science, the laboratory provides mechanistic insights leading to therapeutics and companion diagnostics for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, frontotemporal dementia, and CNS injury.