Wan-Ping Lee, PhD
Research Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory MedicinePerelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Contact InformationD103, Richards Medical Research Laboratories
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Specialty Division
Neuropathology
Research Expertise
My group focuses on discovering human genomic variations, especially structural variations such as copy number variations (deletions and duplications), insertions, tandem duplications, inversions, and translocations. They are substantial contributors to genetic diversity and are usually associated with human diseases. We are closely working on the Alzheimer’s Disease genomics data analysis and participating in the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) and Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC).
Education
B.B.A. (Management Information System), Chung Yuan Christian University, 2001
M.S. (Computer Science and Engineering), National Sun Yat-Sen University, 2004
Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering), National Taiwan University, 2009
Specialty Certification
Postgraduate Training
Postdoctoral associate, Department of Biology, Boston College, 2009-2013
Awards and Honors
1st Place, FPGA Design Contest, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 2003
Honorable Mention, Semiconductor Design and Application Competition, Macronix Education Foundation, 2005
2nd Prize, IC/CAD Contest, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 2005
EDA Scholarship for DAC and ICCAD regular papers, and UBooth poster, SpringSoft Education Foundation, 2006
EDA Scholarship for DAC and ICCAD regular papers, and UBooth poster, SpringSoft Education Foundation, 2007
Scholarship for Graduate Students Study Abroad Program, National Science Council, Taiwan, 2007
Honorable Mention, IC/CAD Contest, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 2007
Outstanding Research Award, Graduate Institute of Electronic Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, 2007
Honorable Mention, IC/CAD Contest, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 2008
The 2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement, 2018
Merit Award, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 2018
Memberships and Professional Organizations
Swiss National Science Foundation study section, 2023 - 2023
NIH/NHGRI RFA-HG-23-026 Study Section, 2024 - 2024
NIH ZRG1 MCST-S (16) Study Section, 2025 - 2025
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Review, 2025 - 2025
NIH/NCATS ZTR1 SBIR-A Study Section, 2025 - 2025
NIH ZRG1 MCST-S (14) Study Section, 2025 - 2025
Web Links
Selected Publications
Exploring Random Forest in Genetic Risk Score Construction
Vaishnavi Venkat, Kaylyn Clark, X. Jessie Jeng, Tsung-Chieh Yao, Hui-Ju Tsai, Tzu-Pin Lu, Tzu-Hung Hsiao, Ching-Heng Lin, Shannon Holloway, Cathrine Hoyo, Shin-Yi Chou, Hui Wang, Wan-Ping Lee, Li-San Wang, Jung-Ying Tzeng, Genetic Epidemiology 49(8): , 2025, PMID:41137733
A specialized reference panel with structural variants integration for improving genotype imputation in Alzheimer disease and related dementias
Po-Liang Cheng, Hui Wang, Beth A. Dombroski, John J. Farrell, Iris Horng, Tingting Chung, Giuseppe Tosto, Brian W. Kunkle, William S.Bush, Badri Vardarajan, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Wan-Ping Lee, Human Genetics and Genomics Advances 6(4): , 2025, PMID:40751311
Multi-ancestry genome-wide meta-analysis of 56,241 individuals identifies known and novel cross-population and ancestry-specific associations as novel risk loci for Alzheimer’s disease
Farid Rajabli, Penelope Benchek, Giuseppe Tosto, Nicholas Kushch, Jin Sha, Katrina Bazemore, Congcong Zhu, Wan-Ping Lee, Jacob Haut, Kara L. Hamilton-Nelson, Nicholas R. Wheeler, Yi Zhao, John J. Farrell, Michelle A. Grunin, Yuk Yee Leung, Pavel P. Kuksa, Donghe Li, Eder Lucio da Fonseca, Jesse B. Mez, Ellen L. Palmer, Jagan Pillai, Richard M. Sherva, Yeunjoo E. Song, Xiaoling Zhang, Takeshi Ikeuchi, Taha Iqbal, Omkar Pathak, Otto Valladares, Dolly Reyes-Dumeyer, Amanda B. Kuzma, Erin Abner, Larry D. Adams, Perrie M. Adams, Alyssa Aguirre, Marilyn S. Albert, Roger L. Albin, Mariet Allen, Lisa Alvarez, Liana G. Apostolova, Steven E. Arnold, Sanjay Asthana, Craig S. Atwood, Sanford Auerbach, Gayle Ayres, Clinton T. Baldwin, Robert C. Barber, Lisa L. Barnes, Sandra Barral, Thomas G. Beach, James T. Becker, Gary W. Beecham, Duane Beekly, Bruno A. Benitez, David Bennett, John Bertelson, Thomas D. Bird, Deborah Blacker, Bradley F. Boeve, James D. Bowen, Adam Boxer, James Brewer, James R. Burke, Jeffrey M. Burns, Joseph D. Buxbaum, Nigel J. Cairns, Laura B. Cantwell, Chuanhai Cao, Christopher S. Carlson, Cynthia M. Carlsson, Regina M. Carney, Minerva M. Carrasquillo, Scott Chasse, Marie-Francoise Chesselet, Nathaniel A. Chin, Helena C. Chui, Jaeyoon Chung, Suzanne Craft, Paul K. Crane, David H. Cribbs, Elizabeth A. Crocco, Carlos Cruchaga, Michael L. Cuccaro, Munro Cullum, Eveleen Darby, Barbara Davis, Philip L. De Jager, Charles DeCarli, John DeToledo, Malcolm Dick, Dennis W. Dickson, Beth A. Dombroski, Rachelle S. Doody, Ranjan Duara, NIlüfer Ertekin-Taner, Denis A. Evans, Kelley M. Faber, Thomas J. Fairchild, Kenneth B. Fallon, David W. Fardo, Martin R. Farlow, Victoria Fernandez-Hernandez, Steven Ferris, Robert P. Friedland, Tatiana M. Foroud, Matthew P. Frosch, Brian Fulton-Howard, Douglas R. Galasko, Adriana Gamboa, Marla Gearing, Daniel H. Geschwind, Bernardino Ghetti, John R. Gilbert, Rodney C.P. Go, Alison M. Goate, Thomas J. Grabowski, Neill R. Graff-Radford, Robert C. Green, John H. Growdon, Hakon Hakonarson, James Hall, Ronald L. Hamilton, Oscar Harari, John Hardy, Lindy E. Harrell, Elizabeth Head, Victor W. Henderson, Michelle Hernandez, Timothy Hohman, Lawrence S. Honig, Ryan M. Huebinger, Matthew J. Huentelman, Christine M. Hulette, Bradley T. Hyman, Linda S. Hynan, Laura Ibanez, Gail P. Jarvik, Suman Jayadev, Lee-Way Jin, Kim Johnson, Leigh Johnson, M. Ilyas Kamboh, Anna M. Karydas, Mindy J. Katz, John S. Kauwe, Jeffrey A. Kaye, C. Dirk Keene, Aisha Khaleeq, Masataka Kikuchi, Ronald Kim, Janice Knebl, Neil W. Kowall, Joel H. Kramer, Walter A. Kukull, Frank M. LaFerla, James J. Lah, Eric B. Larson, Alan Lerner, James B. Leverenz, Allan I. Levey, Andrew P. Lieberman, Richard B. Lipton, Mark Logue, Oscar L. Lopez, Kathryn L. Lunetta, Constantine G. Lyketsos, Douglas Mains, Flanagan E. Margaret, Daniel C. Marson, Eden RR. Martin, Frank Martiniuk, Deborah C. Mash, Eliezer Masliah, Paul Massman, Arjun Masurkar, Wayne C. McCormick, Susan M. McCurry, Andrew N. McDavid, Stefan McDonough, Ann C. McKee, Marsel Mesulam, Bruce L. Miller, Carol A. Miller, Joshua W. Miller, Thomas J. Montine, Edwin S. Monuki, John C. Morris, Shubhabrata Mukherjee, Amanda J. Myers, Trung Nguyen, Thomas Obisesan, Sid O’Bryant, John M. Olichney, Marcia Ory, Raymond Palmer, Joseph E. Parisi, Henry L. Paulson, Valory Pavlik, David Paydarfar, Victoria Perez, Elaine Peskind, Ronald C. Petersen, Helen Petrovitch, Aimee Pierce, Marsha Polk, Wayne W. Poon, Huntington Potter, Liming Qu, Mary Quiceno, Joseph F. Quinn, Ashok Raj, Murray Raskind, Eric M. Reiman, Barry Reisberg, Joan S. Reisch, John M. Ringman, Erik D. Roberson, Monica Rodriguear, Ekaterina Rogaeva, Howard J. Rosen, Roger N. Rosenberg, Donald R. Royall, Marwan Sabbagh, A. Dessa Sadovnick, Mark A. Sager, Mary Sano, Andrew J. Saykin, Julie A. Schneider, Lon S. Schneider, William W. Seeley, Susan H. Slifer, Scott Small, Amanda G. Smith, Janet P. Smith, Joshua A. Sonnen, Salvatore Spina, Peter St George-Hyslop, Takiyah D. Starks, Robert A. Stern, Alan B. Stevens, Stephen M. Strittmatter, David Sultzer, Russell H. Swerdlow, Rudolph E. Tanzi, Jeffrey L. Tilson, John Q. Trojanowski, Juan C. Troncoso, Magda Tsolaki, Debby W. Tsuang, Vivianna M. Van Deerlin, Linda J. van Eldik, Jeffery M. Vance, Badri N. Vardarajan, Robert Vassar, Harry V. Vinters, Jean-Paul Vonsattel, Sandra Weintraub, Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer, Patrice L. Whitehead, Ellen M. Wijsman, Kirk C. Wilhelmsen, Benjamin Williams, Jennifer Williamson, Henrik Wilms, Thomas S. Wingo, Thomas Wisniewski, Randall L. Woltjer, Martin Woon, Clinton B. Wright, Chuang-Kuo Wu, Steven G. Younkin, Chang-En Yu, Lei Yu, Xiongwei Zhu, Brian W. Kunkle, William S. Bush, Akinori Miyashita, Goldie S. Byrd, Li-San Wang, Lindsay A. Farrer, Jonathan L. Haines, Richard Mayeux, Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Gyungah R. Jun, Christiane Reitz & Adam C. Naj on behalf of Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), Genome Biology 26(210): , 2025, PMID:40676597
Structural variation detection and association analysis of whole-genome-sequence data from 16,543 Alzheimer's disease sequencing project subjects
Hui Wang, Beth A. Dombroski, Po-Liang Cheng, Albert Tucci, Ya-Qin Si, John J. Farrell, Jung-Ying Tzeng, Yuk Yee Leung, John S. Malamon, The Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project, Li-San Wang, Badri N. Vardarajan, Lindsay A. Farrer, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Wan-Ping Lee, Alzheimer's & Dementia 21(6): , 2025, PMID:40528303
NIAGADS: A data repository for Alzheimer's disease and related dementia genomics
Amanda Kuzma, Otto Valladares, Emily Greenfest-Allen, Heather Nicaretta, Maureen Kirsch, Youli Ren, Zivadin Katanic, Heather White, Andrew Wilk, Lauren Bass, Jascha Brettschneider, Luke Carter, Jeffrey Cifello, Wei-Hsuan Chuang, Kaylyn Clark, Prabhakaran Gangadharan, Jacob Haut, Pei-Chuan Ho, Wenhwai Horng, Taha Iqbal, Yumi Jin, Peter Keskinen, Alexis Lerro Rose, Michelle K. Moon, Joseph Manuel, Liming Qu, Flawless Robbins, Naveensri Saravanan, Jin Sha, Sam Tate, Yi Zhao, Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project, Laura Cantwell, Jake Gardner, Shin-Yi Chou, Jung-Ying Tzeng, William Bush, Adam Naj, Pavel Kuksa, Wan-Ping Lee, Yuk Yee Leung, Gerard Schellenberg, Li-San Wang, Alzheimers' & Dementia 21(6): , 2025, PMID:40545618
Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project Release 4 Whole Genome Sequencing Dataset
Yuk Yee Leung, Wan-Ping Lee, Amanda B. Kuzma, Heather Nicaretta, Otto Valladares, Prabhakaran Gangadharan, Liming Qu, Yi Zhao, Youli Ren, Po-Liang Cheng, Pavel P. Kuksa, Hui Wang, Heather White, Zivadin Katanic, Lauren Bass, Naveen Saravanan, Emily Greenfest-Allen, Maureen Kirsch, Laura Cantwell, Taha Iqbal, Nicholas R. Wheeler, John J. Farrell, Congcong Zhu, Shannon L. Turner, Tamil I. Gunasekaran, Pedro R. Mena, Yumi Jin, Luke Carter, Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project, Xiaoling Zhang, Badri N. Vardarajan, Arthur Toga, Michael Cuccaro, Timothy J. Hohman, William S. Bush, Adam C. Naj, Eden Martin, Clifton L. Dalgard, Brian W. Kunkle, Lindsay A. Farrer, Richard P. Mayeux, Jonathan L. Haines, Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Li-San Wang, Alzheimer's & Dementia 21(5): , 2025, PMID:40407102
Copy Number Variation and Haplotype Analysis of 17q21.31 Reveals Increased Risk Associated with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Gene Expression Changes in Neuronal Cells
Hui Wang, Timothy S Change, Beth A Dombroski, Po-Liang Cheng, Ya-Qin Si, Albert Tucci, Vishakha Patil, Leopoldo Valiente-Banuet, Chong Li, Kurt Farrell, Catriona Mclean, Laura Molina-Porcel, Alex Rajput, Peter Paul De Deyn, Nathalie Le Bastard, Marla Gearing, Laura Donker Kaat, John C Van Swieten, Elise Dopper, Bernardino F Ghetti, Kathy L Newell, Claire Troakes, Justo G de Yébenes, Alberto Rábano-Gutierrez, Tina Meller, Wolfgang H Oertel, Gesine Respondek, Maria Stamelou, Thomas Arzberger, Sigrun Roeber, Ulrich Müller, Franziska Hopfner, Pau Pastor, Alexis Brice, Alexandra Durr, Isabelle Le Ber, Thomas G Beach, Geidy E Serrano, Lili-Naz Hazrati, Irene Litvan, Rosa Rademakers, Owen A Ross, Douglas Galasko, Adam L Boxer, Bruce L Miller, Willian W Seeley, Vivianna M Van Deerlin, Edward B Lee, Charles L White III, Huw R Morris, Rohan de Silva, John F Crary, Alison M Goate, Jeffrey S Friedman, Yaroslau Compta, Yuk Yee Leung, Giovanni Coppola, Adam C Naj, Li-San Wang, PSP genetics study group, Clifton Dalgard, Dennis W Dickson, Günter U Höglinger, Jung-Ying Tzeng, Daniel H Geschwind, Gerard D Schellenberg, Wan-Ping Lee, Movement Disorders 40(5): 950-961, 2025, PMID:40055946
Polygenic burden of short tandem repeat expansions promotes risk for Alzheimer’s disease
Michael H Guo, Wan-Ping Lee, Badri Vardarajan, Gerard D Schellenberg, Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, Nature Communications 16(1126): , 2025, PMID:39875385
Association of Common and Rare Variants with Alzheimer’s Disease in over 13,000 Diverse Individuals with Whole-Genome Sequencing from the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project
Wan-Ping Lee, Seung Hoan Choi, Margaret G Shea, Po-Liang Cheng, Beth A Dombroski, Achilleas N Pitsillides, Nancy L Heard-Costa, Hui Wang, Katia Bulekova, Amanda B Kuzma, Yuk Yee Leung, John J Farrell, Honghuang Lin, Adam Naj, Elizabeth E Blue11, Frederick Nusetor, Dongyu Wang, Eric Boerwinkle1, William S Bush, Xiaoling Zhang, Philip L De Jager, Josée Dupuis, Lindsay A Farrer, Myriam Fornage, Eden Martin, Margaret Pericak-Vance, Sudha Seshadri, Ellen M Wijsman, Li-San Wang, The Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project, Gerard D Schellenberg, Anita L Destefano, Jonathan L Haines, Gina M Peloso, Alzheimer's & dementia 20(): , 2024, PMID:39428839
Genetic, transcriptomic, histological, and biochemical analysis of progressive supranuclear palsy implicates glial activation and novel risk genes
Kurt Farrell, Jack Humphrey, Timothy Chang, Yi Zhao, Yuk Yee Leung, Pavel P. Kuksa, Vishakha Patil, Wan-Ping Lee, Amanda B. Kuzma, Otto Valladares, Laura B. Cantwell, Hui Wang, Ashvin Ravi, Claudia De Sanctis, Natalia Han, Thomas D. Christie, Robina Afzal, Shrishtee Kandoi, Kristen Whitney, Margaret M. Krassner, Hadley Ressler, SoongHo Kim, Diana Dangoor, Megan A. Iida, Alicia Casella, Ruth H. Walker, Melissa J. Nirenberg, Alan E. Renton, Bergan Babrowicz, Giovanni Coppola, Towfique Raj, Günter U. Höglinger, Ulrich Müller, Lawrence I. Golbe, Huw R. Morris, John Hardy, Tamas Revesz, Tom T. Warner, Zane Jaunmuktane, Kin Y. Mok, Rosa Rademakers, Dennis W. Dickson, Owen A. Ross, Li-San Wang, Alison Goate, Gerard Schellenberg, Daniel H. Geschwind, PSP Genetics Study Group, John F. Crary, Adam Naj, Nature Communications 15(7880): , 2024, PMID:39251599
