Juan C. Troncoso, MD
Pathology
Highlights
Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Juan C. Troncoso
Professional Titles
- Director, Brain Resource Center
- Director, Neuropathology Core of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
- Director, Neuropathology Fellowship training program
Primary Academic Title
Professor of Pathology
Johns Hopkins Physician
Background
Dr. Juan C. Troncoso is a professor of pathology and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a neurologist and neuropathologist with expertise in the pathological diagnosis of dementias and the neuropathology of normal aging.
Dr. Troncoso serves as the director of the Brain Resource Center and leads the Neuropathology Core of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and Parkinson's disease Center at the Johns Hopkins University.
He earned his M.D. from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1973. He completed a residency in neurology at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia followed by a Fellowship in neuropathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He joined the Hopkins faculty in 1983.
Dr. Troncoso's research interests include the neuropathology of normal aging and its intersection with neurodegenerative diseases. In this context, he has conducted neuropathology autopsies for the JHU Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging since the 1980s. The approach of Dr. Troncoso and his laboratory is to conduct morphological studies relevant to the pathobiology of aging and age-associated dementias and movement disorders, and concurrently to collaborate with studies of genetics, molecular biology, and proteomics of these disorders. Dr. Troncoso and his collaborators have been leaders in the application of unbiased stereology to the investigation of neurodegenerations and normal aging. The research activity of Dr. Troncoso is reflected in more than 400 peer-reviewed publications.
In the teaching domain, Dr. Troncoso has been director of the Johns Hopkins neuropathology Fellowship program for more than 25 years. In this capacity, he has supervised the training of many generations of neuropathologists. He is a faculty member of the Aging and Dementia Training Program and of the Pathobiology Graduate Program at Johns Hopkins.
In parallel to his service and academic activities at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Troncoso has served as neuropathology consultant for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland since 1981. This experience in forensic neuropathology is the basis for his book Essential Forensic Neuropathology. (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins 2009).
Centers and Institutes
Additional Academic Titles
Professor of Neurology
Research Interests
Forensic neuropathology, Neuropathology of normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, fronto-temporal degeneration, Huntington's disease
Research Summary
Dr. Troncoso’s research focuses on the neuropathology of normal aging and the pathology, pathogenesis and therapy of neurodegenerative disorders.
His research encompasses clinical-pathological correlations, morphological studies using unbiased stereology and investigations of the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders in relevant genetically engineered mouse models and in vitro systems.
PubMed - Publications
Selected Publications
- Chang K, Ling JP, Redding-Ochoa J, An Y, Li L, Dean SA, Blanchard TG, Pylyukh T, Barrett A, Irwin KE, Moghekar A, Resnick SM, Wong PC, Troncoso JC. Loss of TDP-43 splicing repression occurs early in the aging population and is associated with Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic changes and cognitive decline. Acta Neuropathol. 2023 Dec 22;147(1):4. doi: 10.1007/s00401-023-02653-2. PMID: 38133681.
- Ling JP, Pletnikova O, Troncoso JC, Wong PC. NEURODEGENERATION. TDP-43 repression of nonconserved cryptic exons is compromised in ALS-FTD. Science. 2015;349(6248):650-5. PMCID: PMC4825810
- Nauen DW, Troncoso JC. Amyloid-beta is present in human lymph nodes and greatly enriched in those of the cervical region. Alzheimers Dement. 2021 May 31. doi: 10.1002/alz.12385. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34057798
- Pletnikova O, Kageyama Y, Rudow G, LaClair KD, Albert M, Crain BJ, Tian J, Fowler D, Troncoso JC. The spectrum of preclinical Alzheimer’s pathology and its modulation by ApoE genotype. Neurobiology of Aging. 2018 Nov; 71: 72-80
- Rudow GL, O’Brien R, Savonenko AV, Resnick SM, Zonderman AB, Pletnikova O, Marsh L, Dawson TM, Crain BJ, West MJ, Troncoso, JC. Morphometry of the human substantia nigra in ageing and Parkinson's disease. Acta Neuropathol. 2008;115 (4):461-70. PMCID: PMC2431149
- West MJ, Coleman PD, Flood DG, Troncoso JC. Differences in the pattern of hippocampal neuronal loss in normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease. Lancet 1994;344(8925):769-772
Patents
Light Microscope Attachment for High Resolution Laser Labeling of Microscopic Glass Slides and Histological Sections, C12707
Graduate Program Affiliations
Faculty, Graduate Program, Pathobiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Memberships
- American Association of Neuropathologists
- Society for Neuroscience
Locations
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital
- 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21287
- Get Directions
- phone: 410-955-5000
- fax: 410-955-5001
Expertise
Education
- Residency: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Pathology, 1979
- Residency: Hahnemann University Hospital, Neurology, 1978
- Medical Education: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, MD, 1973
Board Certifications
- Neuropathology: American Board of Pathology, 1983
- Neurology: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1980
Insurance
- Aetna
- CareFirst
- Cigna
- First Health
- Geisinger Health Plan
- HealthSmart/Accel
- Johns Hopkins Health Plans
- MultiPlan
- Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
- Point Comfort Underwriters
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)