Provost Beth Garrett and Dr. John Walsh

Long recognized as an enormously effective and creative leader both in the classroom and in the lab, John Walsh, an associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School specializing in neuroscience, saw his exceptional work recognized with two major awards.

Earlier this year, he won one of only two Associates Awards for Excellence in Teaching given out annually at USC. In her remarks on his selection, provost Beth Garrett highlighted the flair for innovation that helped make Walsh a standout throughout his twenty-plus years as a Trojan.

“He capitalized on the multimedia revolution, realizing that it offered an opportunity to further his connection to students and to develop cutting-edge instruction tools and methods. Professor Walsh’s students esteem him for his enthusiasm, kindness, approachability and easygoing style, and his stellar reputation attracts students not only to his classes, but also to his movement disorders laboratory,” she said.

Receiving this high-profile award helped pave the way for Walsh to earn another, in fact, when he won a nearly $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to pioneer the use of multimedia, social media and gaming to teach neuroscience via mobile devices.

“‘Digital aging’ is an important focus for the USC Leonard Davis School, but we have to remember that it’s not just digital aging—it’s digital everything. Current and future generations will expect easy and reliable access to digital information and resources on retirement, housing, disease and cultural support,” Walsh said. “I have always been dedicated to using the latest technology and innovative approaches to further both my science and my students’ understanding, and I’m proud to help the Davis School advance its mission of being the world’s best source of information on aging—digital and otherwise.”

“John Walsh manages to be that extremely rare combination: a world-class scientist as well as a world-class teacher. We are so proud to see his creativity and vision recognized with these awards,” said Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School. “His passion for science and students inspires us all. It is amazing to realize the impact he has had on the field, both through his own work and that of the many gifted alums who spent time in his lab or his classes.”

As grateful as he is for the recognition as both a scientist and a teacher, Walsh says that success in one area helps inspire him in the other.

“Research in education is a means for keeping teaching fresh and exciting, and it means so much to me to know that my methods are not only effective but also enjoyable for students,” Walsh said. “Teaching, like science, is an ever-changing art form, and I feel rewarded every day when I see the impact I can have on my students—and that they can have on me.”

As befitting its status as the world’s oldest and largest school of gerontology, the USC Leonard Davis School was well represented at the 20^th International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) World Congress, held from June 23-28 in Seoul, South Korea.

Highlighting the Congress’s theme of “Digital @geing: A New Horizon for Health Care and Active Ageing,” USC Leonard Davis dean Pinchas Cohen and associate dean Maria Henke were on hand to discuss the School’s own proposed Digital Aging Center.

“We are deeply honored to join this global conversation on how to apply cutting-edge technology to the study of aging and to the service of the aged,” Cohen said. “Aging is the most universal of human experiences and it is our great pleasure to discuss the future of this exciting field with our international colleagues.”

Established in Belgium in 1950, the IAGG boasts organizations in 64 countries, a worldwide membership of nearly 50,000 and a consultant position to the United Nations. Its mission is to improve the global quality of life for older adults by serving as a network dedicated to sharing research results on health, welfare and rights.

“The ageing society is now a global challenge faced by not only advanced countries, but by the entire world,” said Heung Bong Cha, president-elect of IAGG in his invitation to attendees. “With the full support of the Korean government, I am confident that the Congress will be a successful global academic festivity of exchanging relevant research findings from all five continents and six oceanic regions of the world.”

USC Leonard Davis School dean Pinchas Cohen was among many of USC’s scientific leaders who convened in Seoul, South Korea, on May 23 for the 2013 USC Global Conference.

Cohen and fellow USC Leonard Davis School faculty members Mara Mather and Valter Longo participated in the panel discussion entitled “The Longevity Challenge: Strategies for Successful Aging,” which can be heard in its entirety below.

Click here for audio of all the panels and click here for a more detailed account of the event..

Imagine: a pharmaceutical prevention, treatment or even cure for Alzheimer’s.

It is almost impossible to overstate how monumental a development that would be, and how it would answer the prayers of millions.

Although science isn’t there—yet—a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience spearheaded by USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology researchers offers a tantalizing glimpse of potential solutions.

“Our data suggests the possibility of drugs that can prevent and treat Alzheimer’s,” said lead author, professor and lab principal Christian Pike of the USC Leonard Davis School. “It’s just mouse data, but extremely encouraging mouse data.”

The team studied the effects of a class of drugs called TSPO ligands on male mice that were genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease, known as 3xTg-AD mice. Because a key mechanism of TSPO ligands is to increase production of steroid hormones, it was important to ensure that the mice had low levels of testosterone and related hormones before treatment. Younger mice were castrated while, in older mice, the decrease occurred as a normal consequence of aging.

“We looked at the effects of TSPO ligand in young adult mice when pathology was at an early stage, and in aged mice when pathology was quite severe,” Pike said. “TSPO ligand reduced measures of pathology and improved behavior at both ages.”

The most surprising finding for Pike and his team was the effect of TSPO ligand in the aged mice. Four treatments—once per week over four weeks—in aged 3xTg-AD mice resulted in significant lowering of Alzheimer’s-related pathology and improvements in memory behavior. This finding suggested the possibility that TSPO ligands can reverse components of Alzheimer’s disease, and thus have the potential to be useful in treatment.

For humans, these findings may indeed be quite significant.

“TSPO ligands are currently used in humans in certain types of neuroimaging. Newer TSPO ligands are at the clinical trials stage of development for treatment of anxiety and other conditions,” Pike said. “There is a strong possibility that TSPO ligands similar to the ones used in our study could be evaluated for therapeutic efficacy in Alzheimer’s patients within the next few years.”

In light of their findings, the team will next focus on understanding how TSPO ligands reduce Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Building on the established knowledge that TSPO ligands can act protective by reducing inflammation, shielding nerve cells from injury and increasing the production of neuroactive hormones in the brain, the team will study which of these actions is the most significant in fighting Alzheimer’s disease so they can develop newer TSPO ligands accordingly.

While Pike and his team acknowledge that their findings represent a very exciting possibility, they also stress that it is by no means a given.

“From the optimistic perspective, our data provide very promising findings with tangible potential benefits for both the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s,” Pike said. “On the pessimistic side, research scientists have developed many interventions that cured Alzheimer’s in mice but have failed to show significant benefits in humans. A critical direction we are currently pursuing is successfully translating these findings into humans.”

Co-authors of the study were Anna M. Barron (USC Leonard Davis School and Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan); Luis M. Garcia-Segura (Instituto Cajal, Spain); Donatella Caruso and Roberto C. Melcangi (Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Center of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Milan); and Anusha Jayaraman and Joo-Won Lee (USC Leonard Davis).

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health in support of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, directed by Helena Chui.

USC Leonard Davis School doctoral student Marguerite DeLiema served as the keynote speaker for Fresno’s “Elder Abuse Prevention Conference 2013: Protecting an Aging Population,” held on May 8.

“I was very pleased to present on our 2012 study on the prevalence and risk factors of elder abuse among low-income Latino elders,” DeLiema said. “The topic of elder abuse prevalence in the low-income immigrant Latino community is particularly important to senior service providers in the Central Valley, where, for example, the population of Fresno County is 51% Latino compared to 38% statewide.”

Other speakers for the all-day event included Jill McCarthy from Hinds Hospice, who discussed “Hospice and Palliative Care: Preventing End-of-Life Abuse” and Prescott Cole, the senior staff attorney for the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, who covered “Facility Abuse and Veterans Aid and Attendance Fraud.”

Hosted by Castle Keep Elder Abuse Prevention and California Central Legal Services, the event drew nearly 200 attendees, many of them professionals from disciplines such as nursing, innovative aging technology, home health, hospice, criminal justice and adult protection.

“Our hope is that our research will guide healthcare and legal professionals in responding to neglect and abuse in immigrant communities,” DeLiema said. “It was so inspiring to hear from fellow professionals and community members and to see how interested they were in learning more about all the research we’re doing at the USC Leonard Davis School.”