Per the award website, the honor is presented to early career scientists who have made outstanding contributions to new knowledge about aging through basic biological research. It was established in 1986 to honor Nathan Shock, a founding member of GSA and pioneer in gerontological research at the National Institutes of Health. The award presentation will take place at GSA’s 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held November 13-16 in Seattle, Washington.

Hill, who joined the USC Leonard Davis School in 2023 after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, said receiving the Nathan Shock Award is an honor that provides encouragement and confirms she’s pursuing important research questions.

“[This award] is exciting and reassuring that the research coming from my lab is original and novel,” Hill said.

Hill investigates how dietary interventions interact with cell signaling targets to affect health and aging. In 2022, Hill and others reported in an article in Nature Communications on how the hormone FGF21 is required for mice to reap the longevity and metabolic health benefits of a low-protein diet. Of particular interest, her lab central focus is to determine the unique effects of low-protein diets on the cellular and molecular changes in adipose tissue  (also known as body fat) that impact metabolism during aging.

Understanding how diets and cell signaling work together to affect health could one day enable people to tailor their diet to their individual genetics, she explained.

“Any preventive measure starts from the inside,” Hill said. “Learning more about which dietary interventions affect which genetic targets can help people eat for optimal health.”

Hill credits the extraordinary mentorship and support she received as a student for motivating her to pursue a scientific career. Now, as a principal investigator, she hopes to provide valuable guidance and experiences for the members of her own laboratory and help them identify and reach their goals, she said. Each member of her lab – from undergraduates to postdocs – has their own research project to pursue.

“I want to provide the same kind of mentorship that I received. I hope to support their scientific growth and knowledge by providing them opportunities and a platform to take risks,” Hill said. “I hope they will allow these experiences to lead them to where they want to be in life.”

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Guest lecturer Dr. Hansonia Caldwell, an emeritus professor of music, music historian and USC alumna, gave a presentation on the origin of Black spirituals and their influence with vocalist Kathryn Bailey.

Sisters Sharon Melancon and Jeanie Harris founded Actively Caring Through Sharing (ACTS), a local, South Los Angeles-based caregivers’ support group.

Attendees were treated to lunch catered by M’ Dears, a Black-owned soul food and creole restaurant in South Central.

Fifth Avenue Entertainment performed Gospel music during lunch.

USC Leonard Davis School Assistant Professor Lauren Brown and her mother, Gail Secker-Brown

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Chanelle Mizrahi’s interest in aging and how the body changes over time was piqued while she worked in a UCLA lab as part of a research program in high school. It became a fascination after her grandparents moved in with her family when she was a teenager. “I remember it was really hard for my parents to work and take care of them, especially because my grandma had Alzheimer’s,” says the junior majoring in human development and aging. “I knew I wanted to go to a college that not only had a great science program with amazing research labs, but also one that focused on aging.”

The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology is now offering undergraduate students like Mizrahi the opportunity to take part in aging research through the newly launched Gerontology Enriching Medicine, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (GEMSTEM) to Enhance Diversity in Aging program.

The program is funded by a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute on Aging. “GEMSTEM is a first-of-its-kind program designed to overcome longstanding financial, social support and professional barriers that have limited research opportunities for undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds,” says Professor Sean Curran, the grant’s contact principal investigator.

The objectives of the program include hands-on mentored research training, professionalization and building a peer community network. Associate Professor Jennifer Ailshire, GEMSTEM program co-leader, emphasizes that the program “removes the barrier of volunteering to gain experience. Instead, GEMSTEM participants work with geroscience experts at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and across research units at USC and are provided paid research opportunities funded by the GEMSTEM program, USC Leonard Davis or from the faculty mentor’s research program.”

A Growing Need for Care

By 2030, California’s over-65 population is projected to grow by 4 million people, while the “number of seniors in every major racial/ethnic group will increase,” according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

By recruiting undergraduates from diverse backgrounds from within the USC Leonard Davis School and across USC — including transfers from two- and four- year colleges that serve underrepresented minority students — GEMSTEM strives to bridge the gap between older generations and future medical professionals.

“It’s really important for us to not forget about our older populations,” says Associate Professor John Walsh, who is also a co-leader of the GEMSTEM program. “Our hope is to reach out to the younger generation, those who are coming up in the aging field, and expose them to what’s happening so they can see that they can make an impact.”

Walsh recently coordinated a campus visit by more than 100 high school students from the Los Angeles Unified School District. The visiting students learned not only about the field of gerontology but also about the research opportunities the USC Leonard Davis School provides and the impact this can have on future careers.

Through her involvement with Sages & Seekers, an organization that facilitates conversations between young adults and elders, Mizrahi made a special connection. “The gerontology school as a whole has given me access to work with older adults,” she says. “I take part in a weekly Zoom call where you keep them company. I’ve kept in contact with a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who I now speak to on a daily basis. She’s an amazing woman who lives in Boston, and it’s cool to hear about her life and compare it to mine and also share what I’ve learned in my classroom and in the lab.”

Learn, Adjust and Move on

The GEMSTEM program consists of a scholar track and a partner track. Students in the scholar track don lab coats and get paid to participate in active research alongside a principal investigator (PI). The partner track is open to all students and includes opportunities to attend colloquiums, social events, seminars and workshops.

“I’m so grateful for this position because it offers financial aid,” says Julia Olvera Ryan, a senior majoring in human development and aging. “I’ve been able to take care of costs I was stressed about and focus on my academics. Everybody’s dream is to get paid to do something they love. I’m excited to go to the lab and do research every single day.”

She was paired with a lab that is studying mitochondria-derived peptides in relation to aging, which is a personal issue for Olvera Ryan as her grandmother suffered from dementia. “I’m pre-med, so one day I hope to become a doctor and take care of people who are in similar positions as my grandma,” she explains.

As a part of GEMSTEM, Olvera Ryan says she’s learned everything from lab etiquette to how to perform western blotting, as well as broader lessons she can apply to her general life. “A lot of pre-med students struggle with being perfectionists and not wanting to make mistakes,” she says. “One of the first things I was taught was to admit your mistakes early so you can learn, adjust and move on.”

Boosting Confidence in the Lab

Although Mizrahi took part in research in high school, where she studied foot ulcers in veteran populations, she still found that being a woman in STEM could be intimidating. She now says GEMSTEM has helped boost her confidence. “This program allows you a space where you feel like you always have somebody to talk to, including your PI, your mentor, lab assistants and students,” she says.

As students develop more confidence in the lab, they are also encouraged to present and discuss their work with colleagues. Josh Senior, a GEMSTEM scholar in USC Leonard Davis Professor Mara Mather’s Emotion & Cognition Lab, presented his research project “Mechanisms of Attentional Control and Suppression in Aging” at the 2023 USC Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work. The project took second place in the Life Sciences category and earned Senior a $500 prize.

Josh Senior, a GEMSTEM scholar in the lab of Professor Mara Mather and junior majoring in biological sciences and international relations (Photo/Stephanie Kleinman)

GEMSTEM also sponsors workshops, colloquiums and social events (including ice cream socials, performance events and Dodgers games) to provide students with a chance to meet other mentors in the program and ask questions while creating a network of support among participants. Curran says he’s impressed with how much the students have learned in just the first year of the program.

“We just had our first GEMSTEM retreat in Long Beach, where students presented research they’ve conducted and talked about what they’ve learned so far,” he says. “It is so rewarding to see these students develop and become ready to enter the professional workforce” in the medical and STEM fields.

Olvera Ryan relished the opportunity to take a break from campus and interact with fellow students — some of whom have become close friends. “The retreat offered another way to learn even more about what is going on in the gerontology building,” she says. “And I’ve made such good friends I wouldn’t have met any other way.”

Every week, Janessa Contreras attends the GEMSTEM colloquium, where lunch is provided and she can meet with peers from the program. “I get to listen to other people’s fascinating research, and they’re always willing to answer your questions,” she says. The junior majoring in lifespan health says her interest in the aging process was heavily influenced by her close relationship with her grandmother, Maria Christina, whom she refers to as her best friend. “She passed away right before I came to USC,” she says. “I knew I wanted to study something to give back to her demographic because I noticed there were a lot of inequities within the health system.”

Creating a Comfortable Environment

When Michael Donkor, a sophomore majoring in biological sciences, started as a student worker in the business office of the gerontology building, he didn’t know much about the field. Over time, the conversations he had with faculty and staff members about aging opened his mind to the topic. “They introduced me to the GEMSTEM program, and I gave it a try,” he recalls. “I’ve loved it ever since.”

The program has had such an impact on Donkor that he’s reassessing his future plans. While he still aspires to go to medical school and become a pediatrician, he has a newfound passion for pursuing research. Either way, Donkor says his time in GEMSTEM will inform his career. “As I’ve learned about nutrition and healthy aging, there are many aspects that start off at the root, which is with children,” he says. “This research plays into what I want to do in the future.”

Donkor’s mentor is Cristal Hill, assistant professor of gerontology, who is investigating signaling between adipose tissue (body fat) and the brain and between the brain and the rest of the body. “She’s made things very comfortable for me,” Donkor explains. “As one of the only first-years in the program [last year], I was really nervous, but she’s been there for me — advising me, calming me down and giving me the best pep talks. I see her as my best friend.”

Maria Oorloff, GEMSTEM scholar in the lab of Assistant Professor Ryo Sanabria and senior in human development and aging

Expanding the Gerontology Pipeline

The GEMSTEM program is an important response to the increasing size and diversity of the older population, says USC Vice President and Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer Christopher Manning.

“Utilizing best practices such as mentoring, providing research opportunities and mitigating financial barriers, GEMSTEM addresses a key need for diversification in one of the fastest-growing areas of health care,” Manning says. “I am greatly impressed by this program and proud that it is an opportunity that we can offer our students.”

As she works through the program, Mizrahi says her grandparents are never far from her thoughts. Her immediate goals include continuing her pursuit of aging research, whether in medical school or by earning a doctorate degree. “The experience with my grandma inspired me to really want to make a difference in the field of aging,” she says. “Currently, there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s or dementia. I think with research and time, eventually there will be substantial progress.”

Cover photo: Chanelle Mizrahi, a GEMSTEM scholar in the lab of Assistant Professor Bérénice Benayoun and junior in human development and aging (Photo/Stephanie Kleinman)

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For years, scientists have known that restricting calories — in organisms from yeast to mice and other mammals — leads to a longer life when it’s done without creating malnutrition. But researchers are starting to understand why this happens — and how to mimic these results in a way that’s easier to maintain. Other research is focusing on the types of diets that can achieve the healthiest long lives.

Food power

Cary Kreutzer, director of the Master of Science in Nutrition, Healthspan and Longevity Program, works with the Los Angeles Department of Aging, talking with older adults who participate in meal programs through the U.S. Administration on Aging. “Longevity in the aging process, that is an area of great interest on the aging spectrum,” she says.

When she talks with these older adults, she equates understanding food labels with food power — the power to know what they are putting into their bodies. It’s easy for older people to slide toward highly processed foods, as shopping and cooking can become challenging for aging hands. But Kreutzer tries to demystify the process as much as possible in her work.

She has some tips: For one, stay away from ketogenic diets. “Any diet that cuts out bread and fruit will not provide adequate nutrients and is difficult to sustain long-term, because you miss that stuff,” she says. And that boredom means people will drop the diet and gain weight back.

As for the Mediterranean diet? It’s great, Kreutzer says — less red meat, more seafood, beans and olive oil, and fewer processed foods like chips and cookies. But that’s not the whole story. “The Med diet is not just about food; it’s about lifestyle,” she says, including daily physical activity. “I really wish people in the U.S. could embrace the lifestyle of the Mediterranean and not just the diet choices.”

She’s also excited about nutrigenomics, the study of the effects of nutrients on the expression of an individual’s genetic makeup. One example of how this works involves a genetic defect in processing folic acid from a gene called MTHFR. Some women with this genetic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) may need to take a different form of folic acid while they are pregnant to prevent neural tube disorders in their fetuses. Diets based on genetic testing is an emerging science that may help people figure out what nutrients their bodies need.

Kreutzer points out that certain genetic SNPs make people perceive the taste of cilantro as soap or make it difficult to metabolize caffeine. “This field is just in its infancy,” she says, “but the possibilities are great.”

A diet to extend life

Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences, has been working in nutrition and longevity for a long time, and he says he’s seen diets come and go like the fashion of the week. People often look for short-term fixes for their health or weight without looking at the ability of a particular diet to lengthen their lives. In Longo’s view, the body is like a machine, and certain diets can enable that machine to be more efficient in how it uses food.

His lab has developed an intervention, the fasting-mimicking diet, which provides for the benefits of fasting while allowing the consumption of food. In 2018, he wrote a book about the Longevity Diet, an everyday pescatarian diet combined with five-day periods of the fasting-mimicking program implemented four times a year.

Longo says he’s trying to move the idea away from fad diets and into five pillars of science: clinical studies, basic research, epidemiological studies, studies of long-lived people, and complex systems. Eventually, he says, diets will be personalized, but he thinks most people can benefit from the type of eating he describes. A recent meta-analysis looking at China, Europe and the Americas showed that the Longevity Diet could extend life expectancy by up to 13 years if started at age 20.

He says the study of diets — which has long been considered a soft science — needs to become much more rigorous to get to the truth of how food and fasting impact the body. He envisions doctors prescribing a diet along with drugs for cancer treatment or other diseases to improve a person’s outcome.

For example, Longo’s research has shown that cycling a fasting-mimicking diet enables 40% to 70% of diabetes patients to reduce their drug use. “That’s basically saying, if drug use is reduced within six to 12 months, it isn’t unreasonable to think that in a few years, a lot of these patients are going to be essentially cured,” he says. “I think that in some cases, nutrition can also go after cures for specific diseases.”

What happens when you eat after fasting

Sebastian Brandhorst studies dietary-based interventions to improve overall longevity — as well as health span. “Our goal is not to make people live longer just for the sake of making life longer,” he says, “but we want them to live longer and healthier.”

The research assistant professor of gerontology is studying the application of the fasting-mimicking diet to a number of aging-related diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune diseases. Some of the results have been translated into clinical trials.

But his focus is now on a particular moment in the fasting period: what happens when people consume food again. Brandhorst says there’s good evidence to show that a turnover and activation of stem cells occurs, which can lead to tissue rejuvenation — the regeneration of tissues following the fast.

To study what happens during the refeeding period, he is testing several dietary approaches, modulating what mice eat — a low-protein or ketogenic diet, or any other dietary intervention — to see what happens in their tissue samples. For example, researchers can look at how brain cells react to different foods after a fast in mice that mimic Alzheimer’s patients. “And can we optimize this regeneration even further by modulating the feeding period?” he says. “That’s where our research is going right now, and it’s what we’re most excited about.”

Brandhorst’s big goal is to improve overall health — and he takes a system approach. “We’re not usually particularly interested in just one specific protein, what happens to that protein over time,” he says. “Instead, we’re always looking at the big picture: Is it feasible? Is it extending lifespan? Can it be translated to humans?”

Brandhorst adds that he sees a big misconception in the need for high protein intake. Studies show that up to age 60 or 65, low animal-based protein consumption is beneficial with regards to health and longevity. After that, there is evidence that higher protein intake is better to maintain lean muscle mass and avoid frailty. When he sees high-protein diets in kids and younger adults, he feels it’s the wrong diet. “I think there’s a big misconception based on gym culture but also marketing,” he says. “There are high-protein drinks for kids, or high-protein pancakes, and they’re not good meals.”

Why we choose the diet we do

Sean Curran, professor and vice dean of the USC Leonard Davis School, says diets should be personalized to the individual — but more research is needed on how an individual’s genetics, environment and socioeconomic status blend with the food they eat. He is also interested in how an individual’s microbiome influences the impact of the food they eat, including nutritional value, satiety and how each person uses or stores the energy they ingest.

Curran’s current research uses a small nematode, C. elegans, to examine how microbes influence the health and longevity of the organism. “We’ve found that diet can compensate for genetic deficiency,” he says. “A mutation in a gene that causes health decline later in life and short lifespan can be masked by simply feeding the animal a different diet.”

His lab has also identified diets that are longevity promoting, but there’s a catch. When given the choice, animals select any other food option available besides the longevity-promoting diet. “This provides a really great model to study how an animal makes decisions about what food to eat,” he says. He’s thinking a lot about what the basis of this choice is: Taste? Smell? Feel? Or something else entirely? “There are lots of exciting new directions.”

What happens in a low-nutrient environment

For years, it’s been documented that restricting calories — without causing malnutrition — is the gold standard to improve health span and extend life. Cristal Hill, assistant professor of gerontology, evaluated anti-aging diets in a recent review article published in the journal Science. She and co-authors focused on the many ways that cells respond to diets that are low calorie or that vary in macronutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, fat and protein) to identify potential targets for pharmaceuticals.

Hill has also been studying the overall health impact of a low-protein diet and why it appears to extend the lifespan. In 2021, she published research showing that a single liver-derived metabolic hormone, known as FGF21, induced by a low-protein diet appears to be responsible for lifespan extension in male mice. She’s now doing more to investigate the pathways that improve the function of adipose tissue, or body fat, to support healthy aging while on a low-protein diet.

Hill says it’s important to think not just about food but also about how to implement nutrient-dense foods into a lifestyle — and eating right for each stage or state of a person’s life. “This understanding of nutrition and healthy aging is moving into precision nutrition or precision medicine,” she says.

Mediterranean diet and maintaining weight

Roberto Vicinanza, instructional associate professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School and a specialist in geriatric medicine, has studied the Mediterranean diet for years — as well as the impact that diet has on cardiovascular disorders. He says the diet — which stresses fruits and vegetables, cereals, legumes, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and fish — is strongly linked to positive health outcomes.

In one study published in 2018, Vicinanza found that the Mediterranean diet was inversely associated with cardiometabolic disorders and with polypharmacy, suggesting that improved adherence might potentially delay the onset of age-related health deterioration and reduce the need for multiple medications. His research has also found that the diet seems to have a positive impact on mental health, with people who adhere strictly to it being less likely to have depressive symptoms. All of it points to the importance of whole foods and living a balanced lifestyle.

It’s also important to maintain a steady weight to improve lifespan, Vicinanza says. Weight fluctuations in older adults are associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases. “Not only may being underweight after age 65 compromise health status and increase the risk of malnutrition, but weight fluctuations may also have negative effects,” Vicinanza says. “It’s good to have a stable weight and preserve muscle mass. This is the reason why we shouldn’t rely only on the weight you see on the scale but also consider a comprehensive evaluation of body composition.”

The post Eat Well, Age Well appeared first on USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

Lauren Brown

Assistant Professor of Gerontology;
Edward L. Schneider, MD Chair in Gerontological Research

Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: My research uses publicly available data with the goal of understanding the unique difficulties Black Americans face in maintaining physical and psychological well-being as they age. Focusing on the complex interplay between stress and health, my work aims to more accurately depict the aging experience of Black Americans and how it may be different than dominant aging paradigms. While my work details the stress, racism, structural discrimination, and inequity that Black older adults have experienced, that is only part of the story. I also place emphasis on the coping, agency, strengths, resistance, joy and rest that are part of the Black American experience. I aim to share untold stories about the heterogeneity in Black aging that avoid the tropes of deficit thinking: “Blacks look worse than whites on [insert aging outcome here.]” And I aim to share untold stories of Black aging that do not conceptualize resilience, agency and other strengths as individual personality traits rather than community resources cultivated in response to stress, racism, and life in the US.

I am also the Founder of Linked Fate Data Collective, a data science lab for scholars, scientists, activists, organizers, and students working in unison for the greater purpose of data equity. We utilize publicly available, community-based and opensource data to expose injustice through data and storytelling. Our data projects aim to more accurately represent the diversity within our communities to reject oversimplified scholarship and establishing equitable practices for collecting, disseminating and visualizing data. A larger thread of this work is acknowledging and disrupting the power dynamics in the (academic) research enterprise that exclude, harm, extract or discard Black older adults in the process of data collection. All of which often then impacts analyses, interpretation of findings and the utility of the research for Black aging communities in the US.

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?
A: Los Angeles is home for me. I am originally from the Inland Empire but I have lived in South LA for 15 years now. I played soccer at USC as an undergraduate and got my PhD here in the school of Gero in 2018. I think we have one of the most unique environments at the school of gerontology. I loved my coursework here and Its lovely to be back. I am also here to support older adults and the aging community in South Central and greater LA area. I am actively searching for ways to meaningfully support community-based and grassroots organizations and activists that are the unsung heroes of social justice and health equity work in Los Angeles.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?
A: “The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy”- bell hooks

Teaching is such a beautiful and rewarding part of this job. The classroom is a space of creativity for me, but I always insist that the creativity not stay within the confines of the classroom. This role is sacred to me because I feel like it is my role to connect students to diverse ideas and perspectives, teaching them to sharpen and trust their skillsets, and then empower them to launch their own intellectual journeys. I really thrive teaching beginner statistics courses, health care and research ethics courses and stress and sociology of aging classes, with a particular emphasis on social justice and quantitative methodology.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?
A: I am constantly relearning ways to decentralize capitalistic ideas about endless productivity…. productivity is a trap. “Rest is Resistance” (see Tricia Hersey’s work for more on these ideas). Becoming more efficient just makes more room to fill up my day with more to-do’s. I’m realizing the goals of productivity are not work-life balance but just more work! The day will never arrive when my inbox is at zero or when my to-do list(s) are done. There is no finish line to the work I aim to do in this lifetime so it is important I pace myself so I can enjoy all this life has to offer. I keep reminding myself rest is a productive activity since it allows me to come back to my work and be present.

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?
A: Using my little space/land that I have access to grow things and spending time with my family,
My two cats: Egypt and Puma and my dog Detroit.
Currently listening to Cleo Soul & How to survive the end of the world (podcast)
Currently reading: “How to go mad without losing your mind” by La Marr Jurelle Bruce
Fav restaurant in LA right now: Baba Vegan and Crystals Soul Cafe
Fav LA bookstores: Reparations Club & The Salt Eaters

Constanza Cortes

Assistant Professor of Gerontology

Q: What is the focus of your research?

A: We focus on understanding why exercise is good for the brain, and how it can be used to help prevent or delay the onset of age-associated cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?

A: The critical mass of geroscience-focused research, and the possibility of joining a world-class environment with experts in any translational and socio-economic areas of aging. Research cannot happen in a vacuum!

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?

A: Scientific/critical thinking. Being a scientist means always asking ‘why’ and ‘how’, and seeing students develop those skills and begin to question facts they are given is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?

A: Patience and kindness, for myself and for others.  

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?

A: I am a salsa and bachata dancer.

Francesca Falzarano

Assistant Professor of Gerontology

Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: My research is a direct culmination of my own experiences after my mother was diagnosed with dementia when I was only 14 years old. I have since worked to build a program of research focused on bridging psychology and technology to identify the individual, contextual, and psychosocial factors contributing to heterogeneity in the experiences of dementia family caregivers. My work specifically applies principles of developmental science to better understand the differential impacts of care-related stress on psychosocial outcomes across the dementia caregiving trajectory, ranging from diagnosis, progression, to death and bereavement. A major throughline of my work explores how technology could be leveraged to develop targeted behavioral interventions to better support the mental health and well-being of dementia family caregivers.

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?
A: I feel so lucky to be a part of an entire School of Gerontology. USC Leonard Davis School’s nationally recognized reputation for conducting innovative, cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research is only one of many reasons that brought me here. The Leonard Davis School’s significant contribution to amplifying the field of Gerontology makes me so grateful to have the opportunity to learn from leading experts that I can now call my colleagues. Also – as a lifelong New Yorker, the California weather isn’t bad either!

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?
A: I love to teach about the integration of user-centered design principles and behavioral research involved in the development and testing of technological tools that are tailored to older adults’ varying mobility, functional, and cognitive capabilities and designed to support their psychosocial well-being. It is a surprisingly interdisciplinary field that bridges a continuum of knowledge across gerontology, technology, and psychology to inform the design of useful and usable technologies for older adults.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?
A: I recently came across this quote by Mary Anne Radmacher that sums it up better than I can: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?
A: All things movement! Running, cycling, hiking – I love to be active, get outside, and break a sweat!

Cristal Hill

Assistant Professor of Gerontology

Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: In general, diets that either reduce caloric (CR) intake or alter the intake of amino acids, including dietary protein restriction (DPR) are reported to reduce the risks of age-related diseases and obesity. The central focus of the Hill lab is to determine the impact of dietary protein on cellular and molecular adaptation within adipose tissue (i.e., body fat) during aging.

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?
A: There are several reasons that led me to consider the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, however the main reason is the collaborative research environment across the campus and to contribute something greater than myself.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?
A: My favorite part of teaching is observing the eagerness and curiosity of students, especially when the subject/topic is new to them.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?
A: Don’t sweat the small stuff! I learned to seek my purpose during grad school. Like this, I feel that moving with purpose and faith reassures me to support my husband, family/friends, and for the betterment of mankind.

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?
A: Gardening and tending to house plants. This hobby always sparks happy memories of spending time with my grandmother.

Michelle Keller

Assistant Professor of Gerontology;
Leonard and Sophie Davis Early Career Endowed Chair in Minority Aging

Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: My research focuses on designing and testing interventions to reduce potentially inappropriate medications and treatments in older adults. I also work closely with clinicians and health system leaders to design interventions that ensure that older adults, particularly underserved populations, are receiving high value health care.

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?
A: I’m really excited to collaborate with our amazing faculty and students to improve the health of older adults. What I’m particularly excited about is the multidisciplinary aspect of the school, which allows for collaborations between basic or bench scientists and social scientists.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?
A: I love teaching about health policy, as it is an incredibly dynamic topic. Our health system is constantly changing and touches all of us, so I enjoy discussing policy changes with students and engaging them on how these changes affect our ability to access and pay for healthcare.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?
A: As we get older, our adverse experiences can help us become more empathetic and understanding towards others. We can develop broader perspectives, allowing us to relate to different perspectives.

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?
A: I love paddleboarding! I find it to be a meditative activity. When I’m out on the water, it’s hard to think about other things or else I lose my balance and fall into the water!

Daniel Nation

Professor of Gerontology and Medicine;
Merle H. Bensinger Professorship in Gerontology

Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: My research focuses on vascular changes contributing to cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. In particular, I am interested in the hypothesis that increased cerebrovascular resistance and blood-brain barrier permeability drive neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment, particularly in those at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. My work aims to elucidate this process and to develop and refine neuroimaging and biofluid markers of these pathophysiological changes, which will ultimately inform therapeutic efforts.

Q: What brought you to the USC Leonard Davis School?
A: As one of the premier institutions of aging research in the world, the school is an ideal place to conduct research, collaborate and share ideas, and train the next generation of scientists and professionals in the field of aging.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching or favorite subject material to teach?
A: I most enjoy teaching students about the different neurocognitive disorders of aging, including the neuropsychology, neuroscience and neuropathology of these diseases. I find it rewarding to give students a holistic perspective on these disorders and to share stories from my experiences with patients and their families.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve gotten older?
A: Youth is wasted on the young.

Q: What is your favorite hobby or pastime?
A: Surfing.

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Hill shared the importance of exercise and diet in healthy aging. “A professional football player needs a lot more protein than the average person. But after retirement, if that player eats the same amount of protein while exercising far less, it will lead to unhealthy fat,” said Hill.

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“The macronutrients we consume, be they proteins, carbohydrates or fats, induce various signals between our brain and other organs, which in turn uses those signals to regulate cell function, thus impacting health,” said Hill. “Clarifying the genetic and molecular pathways by which this communication occurs can lead to dietary recommendations or other interventions that can improve our health and lifespans.”

The central focus of her lab at USC will be to investigate the distinctive impact of protein restriction on adipose tissue function. Commonly known as body fat, adipose tissue is a critical regulator of energy and glucose homeostasis. However, aging and obesity contribute to various impairments within adipose tissue that are detrimental to optimal health.

“The specific mechanisms within adipose tissue that mediate the effects of low-protein diets on improving metabolic health during aging remains to be identified,” she said. “There is more to consider and discover about how adipose tissue adapts to improve health.”

Her long-term research goal is to further a new framework in aging research that integrates genetics and dietary modification as a basis for translational findings and to train future scientists to conduct research that emphasizes the biology of aging.

“We are thrilled to welcome Cristal Hill and excited about the new directions in aging research that she is advancing,” said Pinchas Cohen, MD, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School. “She is using state-of-the-art technological tools to explore innovative ideas about metabolism in aging, and I am confident she has a great future in our field.”

The recipient of a Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity—NIH Pathways to Independence (K99/R00) award, Hill’s aging-focused work builds upon research she conducted as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Christopher D. Morrison at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University. Early work from this lab confirmed that fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) is required to improve metabolic health during protein restriction. FGF21, mostly secreted from the liver, is a beneficial metabolic hormone known to reduce body weight, improve blood sugar regulation, and increase energy expenditure. To expound on FGF21 signaling, during her postdoc training she investigated how the brain responds to FGF21 during protein restriction.

“We showed that FGF21 signaling in the brain is required to improve metabolic health during protein restriction, but we don’t know whether that signaling solely impacts adipose tissue,” said Hill. “My new work will test the hypothesis that the remodeling of adipose tissue in mouse models during dietary protein restriction directly improves metabolic health during aging with the hope that findings can help to address obesity, diabetes or age-related metabolic dysfunction.”

Hill was recognized with the 2021 Young Investigator on Aging Award from the Orentreich Foundation for the Advancement of Science and also received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (Parent F32) for work focused on the effects neuronal FGF21 signaling effects on metabolism during dietary protein restriction.

In addition to her lab research, Hill is passionate about making science accessible. She previously served as chair of African American initiatives with the American Diabetes Association in Springfield, Illinois, and worked to educate church, senior citizen, and school groups about the high prevalence of diabetes within the underserved populations. She is currently co-chair of the diversity, equity, inclusion, and opportunities committee of the American Aging Association Trainee Chapter and also hopes to inspire more individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to join the field of geroscience.

“Being an African American female scientist, when I started my higher education, I didn’t see many people like me and I’d like to help change that,” she said. “I want to see more young and diverse individuals involved in science, so they can be the next innovator of something that’s going to gain us some insight into how we age. I’ve received so much assistance throughout my academic path and going into my first faculty position. Why would I be selfish with that?”

Hill earned her doctorate in molecular biology, microbiology, and biochemistry at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Her training there focused on the mechanisms of biological aging under the mentorship of Andrzej Bartke, a distinguished scholar in aging research. She initially planned to pursue a career as a veterinarian, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal sciences from Tuskegee University. Her experience helping to treat diabetic animals in a veterinary clinic, along with her research during her master’s training on high-fat diets and cardiovascular disease in turkeys, steered her toward a career in nutrition and later sparking her interest in biological aging instead.

“I was intrigued that we could use diets to leverage and improve healthy aging, she said. “That potential to effect positive change is what started me on the scientific journey I am on today.”

With her focus on nutrition and longevity, Hill will work alongside other USC Leonard Davis School researchers including Pinchas Cohen, Sean Curran, Valter Longo and Christian Pike, who are assessing ways genes interact with nutrition to affect aging. She says joining the multidisciplinary faculty of the Leonard Davis School feels like the ideal place to pursue her varied scientific interests.

“When I arrived on the campus and met with individuals within in the school, the conversations with the faculty, admins, and students it felt like home,” she said. “It was welcoming, it was warm, it was collaborative. It’s a great place for me to come and continue my research.”

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