Garnik Akopian, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Garnik Akopian, M.D., Ph.D. is a Research Assistant Professor at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center and the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.  In 1975 he graduated from the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute at Baku, USSR (M.D.) and in 1986 earned his Ph.D. in Physiology from the Institute of Physiology, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Baku, USSR. In 1994 he was awarded a Fellowship from Ministry of Science and Art of the Free State of Thuringia, Germany. He was a Research Laboratory Specialist at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at USC from 1996 to 2008.   His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity within neuronal circuits of the basal ganglia in aging and in animal models of basal ganglia disorders. Dr Akopian also participates in The Progesterone in Brain Aging and Alzheimer's disease Program. Dr. Akopian is a member of Society for Neuroscience and is actively involved in the training of undergraduate and graduate students in USC’s Program in Neuroscience.

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