Alanna Strong, MD, PhD
Locations: Main Building, Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care
About Alanna Strong, MD, PhD
Alanna Strong, MD PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman SChool of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an attending physician in the Division of Human Genetics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her Pediatrics residency at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and her Clinical Genetics and Genomics Fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Strong's clinical focus is on diseases affecting the liver and kidney. Her research focuses on understanding how different genes contribute to liver and kidney diseases and how these conditions can be treated.
Titles
Attending Physician
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Certifications
Medical Genetics – American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics
General Pediatrics - American Board of Pediatrics
Awards and Honors
2025 Early Career Award, American Society of Human Genetics
2023 Sir William Osler Young Investigator Award, Interurban Clinical Club
2022 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award
2022 Young Physician-Scientist Award, American Society for Clinical Investigation
2021 Medical Genetics and Genomics Training Program Academic Mentor of the Year Award, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2021 Pilot Project Award, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Collaborative Pairs
2019 Research Foundation Award, Margaret Q. Landenberger
2019 Junior Faculty Pilot Program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2024 Top 10% Rated Clinical Provider, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
2017 SEEDS Service Award, St. Christopher's Hospital of Children
2012 Edward Holmes Award in Bench Research, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
2012 Junior Investigator Award for Women, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Council 2012 Scientific Sessions
2010 Trainee Award in Predoctoral-Translational Research, American Society of Human Genetics
2010 Fellow, American Heart Association Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Great Rivers Affiliate
2005 Summa cum laude with University Honors, University of Pennsylvania
American Heart Association Grant
National Institutes of Health T32 Grant
Leadership and Memberships
Memberships in Professional Organizations
American Heart Association
American Society of Human Genetics
Editorial and Academic Positions
2020-present Reviewer, American Journal of Medical Genetics
2020-present Reviewer, Lipids
2019-present Reviewer, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology
2019-present Reviewer, Circulation Research
2018-present Reviewer, DNA and Cell Biology
2018-present Reviewer, Cardiovascular Research
2018-present Reviewer, Metabolism
2018-present Reviewer, Scientific Reports
2016-present Reviewer, Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis and Vascular Biology
Education & training
Undergraduate Degree
BS in Biology - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Graduate Degree
PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology - University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Medical Degree
MD - Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Residency
Pediatrics - St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA
Fellowship
Human Genetics - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PA
Research Fellow - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Publications
PubMed
Publications
2017
Strong A, Musunuru K. (2017) Genome editing in cardiovascular diseases. Nat Rev Cardiol. 14(1): 11-20.
2016
Strong A, Musunuru K. (2016) The (pro)renin receptor and LDL clearance: an old player joins a new game. Circ. Res.117: 187-9.
2015
Patel KM, Strong A, Tohyama J, Jin X, Morales CR, Billheimer J, Millar JS, Kruth H, Rader DJ. (2015) Macrophage sortilin promotes LDL uptake, foam cell formation, and atherosclerosis. Circ. Res. 116: 789-796
2014
Strong A, Patel K, Rader DJ. (2014) Sortilin and lipoprotein metabolism: making sense out of complexity. Curr. Opin. Lipidol. 25:350-7.
Bearden D, Strong A, Ehnot J, DiGiovine M, Dlugos D, Goldberg EM. (2014) Targeted treatment of migrating partial seizures of infancy with quinidine. Ann. Neurol. 76:457-61.
Ding Q, Strong A, Patel KM, Ng SL, Gosis BS, Regan SN, Cowan CA, Rader DJ, Musunuru K. (2014) Permanent alteration of PCSK9 with in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. Circ. Res. 115:488-92.
2012
Strong A, Ding Q, Edmondson AC, Millar JS, Sachs KV, Li X, Kumaravel A, Wang MY, Ai D, Guo L, Alexander ET, Nguyen D, Lund-Katz S, Phillips MC, Morales CR, Tall AR, Kathiresan S, Fisher EA, Musunuru K, Rader DJ. (2012) Hepatic sortilin regulates both apolipoprotein B secretion and LDL catabolism. J. Clin. Invest. 122: 2807-16.
Strong A, Rader DJ (2012) Sortilin as a regulator of lipoprotein metabolism. Curr. Atheroscler. Rep. 14: 211-8.
Ai D, Baez JM, Jiang H, Conlon DM, Hernandez-Ono A, Frank-Kamenetsky M, Milstein S, Fitzgerald K, Murphy AJ, Woo CW, Strong A, Ginsberg HN, Tabas I, Rader DJ, Tall AR. (2012) Activation of ER stress and mTORC1 suppresses hepatic sortilin-1 levels in obese mice. J. Clin. Invest. 122:1667-87.
2010
Musunuru K*, Strong A , Frank-Kamenetsky M, Lee NE, Ahfeldt T, Sachs KV, Li X, Li H, Kuperwasser N, Ruda VM, Pirruccello JP, Muchmore B, Prokunina-Olsson L, Hall JL, Schadt EE, Morales CR, Lund-Katz S, Phillips MC, Wong J, Cantley W, Racie T, Ejebe KG, Orho-Melander M, Melander O, Koteliansky V, Fitzgerald K, Krauss RM, Cowan CA, Kathiresan S, Rader DJ. (2010) From noncoding variant to phenotype via SORT1 at the 1p13 cholesterol locus. Nature 466: 714-9.
Strong A, Rader DJ. (2010) Clinical Implications of Lipid Genetics for Cardiovascular Disease. Current Cardiovascular Risk Rep. 4:461-8.