There's something about ‘the old’ that draws Caleb ‘Tuck’ Finch – be it the evolutionary secrets of long-lived creatures, the molecular biology of Alzheimer’s disease or the haunting beauty of old-time fiddle tunes.
CALEB "TUCK" FINCH SETS DOWN HIS bow and century-old fiddle (it’s not a violin!) and takes a mid-morning break. At home on a weekend, one of the world’s pre-eminent neurobiologists and a leading authority on senescence finds time for his passion: old-time Appalachian music.
He's a darn good fiddler.
He's also a chaired professor in USC’s top-rated Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and co-director of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. His clinical research has led to breakthroughs in the understanding and possible treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Over the years he's taken a bit of molecular biology, some neuroscience and a touch of wildlife biology to glean new insights into how humans and other organisms grow older. In collaboration with animal biologists, Finch’s studies of long-lived birds, fish and turtles are revealing how these species avoid the diseases of aging that plague most other creatures.
“Tuck is the world’s most recognized scientist in the field of aging research,” says gerontology dean Edward L. Schneider, who has known Finch for 30 years. “I don't know of anyone working in the science of aging – or in any science, really – who has a broader knowledge base than he does. If you have a question about anything from molecular biology to the longevity of fish to the evolution of aging, call on Tuck.”
Colleagues say that Finch is a thinker who doesn't get stuck on his own theories. “If he has an idea that turns out to be wrong, he doesn't defend it [to the end]. He can move on. That's what good scientists do,” says collaborator Steven Austad, a University of Idaho biologist. “He has constantly moved forward in science rather than getting stuck in a groove.”
Finch has received most of the major awards in biomedical gerontology, including the Sandoz Premier Prize in 1995. In addition to occupying the ARCO/ William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging, he became a University Professor in 1989 – a distinction he shares with only 14 other USC faculty in recognition of their contributions to multiple fields. He has written more than 350 scholarly articles and four books, including the internationally acclaimed Longevity, Senescence and the Genome (1991) and Aging: A Natural History (1995), co-authored with University of Missouri evolutionary biologist Robert E. Ricklefs. The latter, a basic introduction for the non-scientist, has been translated into five languages.
Finch’s lanky gait is a common sight around campus. His full beard and piercing eyes look more Nantucket whaler than mad scientist, but he's no anchorite. Besides teaching a full course load, he's been a leader in recruiting the world’s top scientists and its most promising students to conduct neuroscience research here, according to Joseph Aoun, dean of USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He has also served as an important mentor to new faculty recruits and spearheaded courses that cross traditional scientific boundaries.
“Its no surprise that he has developed some of the most innovative interdisciplinary teaching programs for both undergraduates and graduates,” says Aoun.
IN THE COMFORTABLE den of the Altadena, Calif., home he shares with his wife Doris, a fabric artist, Finch talks about his work on Alzheimer’s disease, his views on aging in humans and in other organisms – and his love of music.
“There were a lot of older musicians in the rural community I grew up in,” says Finch, who passed his boyhood in New York’s Hudson River Valley.
“On Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, there would be a farm wagon in the village square with a square dance band. This music always haunted me, sent shivers down my back. And I eventually learned to play it.”
Finch favors a style of music that enjoyed its heyday a century or more ago, and tellingly, he mastered it through methodical research. In his 20s, Finch and longtime friend Eric H. Davidson, a Caltech cell biologist he met in graduate school at Rockefeller University, began scouting southwest Virginia’s Grayson and Carroll counties to study and record the music of Appalachia’s heartland. In the 1960s Finch joined Davidson in recording and learning from dozens of local musicians the traditional tunes passed down in their families over generations. Eleven albums of field recordings grew from these efforts, issued by the Smithsonian Institution’s prestigious Folkways label.
| "It's the absolute opposite of where the research in this field has thrust itself. It's as if everyone was looking at the spaghetti as the cause of Alzheimer’s when it’s really in the marinara sauce.” |
This determination to keep something very old alive seems fitting to Finch, whose passion as a scientist has been to peel away the root causes of aging to extend human life. He doesn't claim to have discovered the fountain of youth, but he is tracking the river of life to its source.In terms of prolonging his own life span, the 62-year-old scholar has chosen his ancestors well. His mother is now 95; his grandmother also lived into her 90s. Finch eats what he calls a “sensible diet” with plenty of red meat, red wine, fruits and vegetables. He exercises regularly, including ocean swims and long walks in the trails above his hillside home. He takes supplements of vitamins C and E.“Moderation is key,” he says.Photographed by Joe Pugliese
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