Past Trainees

RECENT POSTDOCTORAL TRAINEES

Katherine Delellis Henderson, Ph.D. (Preceptor, Leslie Bernstein)
Research Scientist III,
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

Jennifer Prescott, Ph.D.  (Preceptor, Leslie Bernstein) Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard University

RECENT PREDOCTORAL TRAINEES

My main interest is in the epidemiology and biodemography of aging, using biological measurements to improve our understanding of 1) disability onset and the frailty process and 2) health disparities in late life. In my dissertation, I focus on two inflammatory proteins, interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein, that have been identified as important predictors of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. My research addresses variation in these proteins over time, variation related to socioeconomic status, and the role of IL-6 and CRP in cognitive function and decline. I am also very interested in longitudinal methods and have used growth curve modeling to analyze data from the HRS/AHEAD studies, the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, and the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.

Jessica Brommelhoff (Preceptor, Margaret Gatz)
Doctoral Student
Department of Psychology
USC

Jessica Brommelhoff is a 4th-year student pursuing the Clinical Aging track in the Clinical Science area. Jessica works with Dr. Margaret Gatz and is interested in the relationship between dementia and depression in older adults. In addition, Jessica is interested in examining the neuropathological manifestation of depression in older adults. Jessica attended Wellesley College where she received a B.A. in psychobiology and English, and Yale University, where she received an M.P.H. with a concentration in chronic disease epidemiology.

Elizabeth Hughes Davis (Preceptor, Thomas McNeill)
McNeill Lab
Keck School of Medicine
USC

Study of the “aged” brain, in contrast to “adult” and “developing” systems, is essential to discovering ways to combat the mental and behavioral degeneration that often accompanies age. The brain’s intrinsic capability for repair is attenuated with age, a detriment magnified by the increased incidence of stroke and diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in the aged population. By examining the brain’s responses to insults such as stroke throughout development and aging, we can see that it possesses a limited natural capacity to form and reform connections in ways that could contribute to enhanced functional recovery. With appropriate pharmacological or behavioral therapies, these intrinsic capabilities could be enhanced to prevent severe disability or contribute to substantial improvements in the quality of life for individuals inflicted with these common injuries.

My projects in the McNeill lab explore the involvement of growth-associated proteins in neural plasticity in adulthood. Mapping the mechanisms contributing to adaptive responses will help us to develop ways to condition the aging brain to withstand common ailments more effectively. Also, in cases where degeneration and stroke do become debilitating, this research may contribute to development of post-injury therapies to maximize functional recovery, thus improving the quality of life for an aging population.

Daphna Gans earned her doctorate in gerontology from the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California and her masters in family studies from Michigan State University. She is currently an NIA post-doctoral fellow in the study of aging at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Her current work explores how the various contexts of ethnic culture, religion affiliation, and type of welfare regime shape the development of elder care preferences and affect the enactment of such preferences into actual provision of support. It addresses the benefits and costs of parental support on individuals and families, as well as the implications of families’ ability or inability to provide parental care on social policy formation. Using longitudinal as well as cross-national datasets, she is specifically interested in exploring discrepancies between eldercare preferences and actual exchanges of support and how such discrepancies affect the health and psychological well being of adult children.

Nicole Gatto (Preceptor, Wendy Mack)
Postdoctoral Fellow
UCLA

My dissertation research is focus on cognitive function among healthy middle-aged adults. Since cardiovascular insufficiency among elderly persons has been shown to account for 28% of variation in performance on cognitive tests of conceptual abstraction and flexibility, the presence of vascular disorders, such as atherosclerosis among middle-aged adults may explain observed differences in cognitive function apparent after taking into account demographic characteristics as well as other biologic, lifestyle and socioeconomic factors. In addition to atherosclerotic processes, metabolic factors may also have a measurable effect on cognitive function in middle ages. In an additional project, I have proposed utilizing the retinal vessels as anatomic/physiologic surrogates of microvasculature in the brain, and will use measurements of diameters of retinal vessels to reflect cerebral arteriosclerosis. My underlying assumption is that changes in the retinal vasculature that are signs of underlying pathology will be reflective of similar changes in the cerebral vasculature.

Randi Jones (Preceptor, Margaret Gatz)
Doctoral Student
Department of Psychology
USC

As a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology, I focus my research primarily on cognitive and behavioral changes that occur with aging, both normal and dementia-related. I am particularly interested in looking at changes in language production and comprehension, and in exploring the possibility that linguistic analysis may reveal evidence of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. To that end, I am currently working with transcripts of personal narratives and conversations to determine how semantic and syntactic patterns vary with cognitive function.

Emily Rosario, Ph.D. (Preceptor, Christian Pike)
Postdoctoral Fellow
UCLA

My doctoral studies in Dr. Christian Pike’s lab investigate the relationships between sex steroid hormone depletion during normal aging and the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To examine these relationships I use postmortem human tissue and several animal models for aging and Alzheimer’s disease.  Results from these studies suggest that normal androgen loss in men increases the risk for the development of AD.