University of Southern California & University of California, Los Angeles
Research Themes
Biology, genetics and demography of aging; Cognitive aging and the demography of dementia; Determinants of health, well-being and longevity; Health trends and disparities
News
CBPH News & Events
Pilot Projects
2024. Janet S. Choi. Hearing Loss and Epigenetic Aging in Older Adults.
2024. Phoebe Imms . Deep learning of brain images to predict future cognitive impairment in cognitively normal older adults.
2024. Richard Leuchter . Applying a precision medicine approach to prediabetes biomarkers for older adults.
2023. Eun Young Choi. Neighborhood Stressors and Epigenetic Aging among Older Adults in the U.S.
2023. Liliana Paloma Rojas Saunero. Estimating effects of social integration on disability trajectories in a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of older adults.
2023. Sithara Vivek . Deep learning-based blood transcriptome signatures associated with blood biochemical endotypes of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias.
2023. Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado. Cultural mismatch gets “under the skin”: An investigation of mismatch, stress, allostatic load and epigenetic clock during the transition to college.
2022. Cynthia Kusters, Michael Irwin, Judith Carroll . Treatment of Insomnia using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Tai Chi Chih and Modification of Metabolomics.
Although disease morbidity and mortality risk are elevated among those with sleep disturbances, the specific molecular pathways altered by sleep loss, which impact human disease, are poorly defined, and may be particularly magnified in late life. Potential pathways include inflammatory, oxidative stress, metabolic, and (neuro)-endocrinological pathways, each of which modifies biological aging. No research to date has tested whether treatment of insomnia in older adults modifies metabolic profiles. As insomnia is a modifiable behavioral target with established treatment efficacy, whether this treatment also improves metabolic patterns relevant to health would be a valuable addition to our understanding of how poor sleep drives risk. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective intervention to treat insomnia. Our prior trial demonstrated the effectiveness of Tai Chi Chih as an alternative intervention successful at improving sleep among older adults with insomnia. Moreover, we observed improvements in inflammation among CBT-I participants pointing to biological shifts because of treatment. In the present proposal we extend this work by investigating additional relevant metabolites for health using novel metabolomic approaches. We hypothesize that treatment of insomnia using either CBT-I or TCC will relate to improvements in concentrations of important metabolites relevant to cardiometabolic health and biological aging, namely improved lipid, amino acid, and oxidative stress profiles. We will use existing stored specimens to complete this work, and will use the results to inform future grant applications to support junior investigator, Dr. Kusters.
2022. Jennifer Ailshire. Colombia HRS Pilot – COSA.
2022. Miriam Mutambudzi, Maria Brown . Biological Age and Chronic Health Trajectories: Moderation by Perceived Discrimination.
How biological age may prospectively predict differential classification into trajectories of chronic health conditions (CHCs) associated with greater morbidity and mortality in older adults, and how this association may differ based on experiences of perceived discrimination are still unclear. The objective of the proposed research is to fill this gap using 2014-2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data and biological clock data from the HRS Venous Blood Study. We will construct CHCs trajectories using latent class mixture models and regress these on PhenoAge, an epigenetic clock that measures biological age. We will further examine the moderation effects of perceived discrimination on this association in Black, White and Hispanic participants. Exploring differences in vulnerability to health declines by biological age can enhance our understanding of drivers of accelerated health deterioration that have previously been insufficiently identified or quantified. It will also provide insights into subgroups of adults who, due to accelerated biological aging and exposure to negative social determinants of health, may benefit from access to social and medical resources, particularly in cases where such resources (ex. Medicare) are reserved for those of a certain chronological age. Through this seed funding, we can build a foundation for additional research on biological and social contributors to disparities in adverse health trajectories. Our findings would inform the design of a future NIH R01 application focused on understanding factors contributing to differential health declines among diverse adults of similar chronological age and health profiles.
2022. Theresa Andrasfay . Exploring the Role of Occupational Characteristics as Social Determinants of Epigenetic Aging.
It is thought that adverse working conditions contribute to premature aging, but it is unclear whether this occurs at the molecular level. The objective of this pilot project is to examine how occupational categorizations and specific occupational exposures are associated with accelerated epigenetic aging, and how they contribute to the earlier aging of disadvantaged social groups. This project will utilize data from the Health and Retirement Study’s 2016 Venous Blood Study, complemented with data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), to assess how a set of several physical, psychosocial, and environmental occupational characteristics are associated with epigenetic aging as estimated through five epigenetic clocks. The results from this study will contribute to our understanding of the biological processes through which working conditions influence health and the aging process.
2021. Courtney S. Thomas Tobin. Evaluating the Role of Allostatic Load in the Association between Mental and Physical Health among Black and White Adults.
2021. Eric T. Klopack . Epigenetic Signature of Childhood Adversity in Older Adults.
2021. Lauren Schmitz, Teresa Seeman. arly Life Adversity Associations with Later Life Epigenetic Profiles: The Multi- Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).
2021. Marco Angrisani . The Online Memory Training Study in a Population Representative Panel .
2020. Gregory Miller. Pro-inflammatory Gene Pathways Mediating SES Disparities in Population Health across Adult Development.
2020. Jennifer Ailshire. Exposure to Neurotoxins, DNA Methylation, Inflammatory Mechanisms, and Cognitive Aging.
2020. Jennifer Nicoloro-SantaBarbara. Resiliency and Immune Cell Distribution and Aging in HRS.
Center-Supported Publications
Neuroanatomical and clinical factors predicting future cognitive impairment.
Deep phenotyping and genomic data from a nationally representative study on dementia in India
Short sleep and insomnia are associated with accelerated epigenetic age
Socioeconomic status and immune aging in older US adults in the health and retirement study
Lifetime Exposure to Smoking, Epigenetic Aging, and Morbidity and Mortality in Older Adults
In utero exposure to the Great Depression is reflected in late-life epigenetic aging signatures
The mitochondrial derived peptide humanin is a regulator of lifespan and healthspan
Human Population Genetics in Aging Studies for Molecular Biologists
Early life stress, subjective social status, and health during late adolescence
Sleep and Inflammation During Adolescents’ Transition to Young Adulthood
Psychosocial stress and C-reactive protein from mid-adolescence to young adulthood
Depressive symptoms and immune transcriptional profiles in late adolescents
Chronic stress exposure and daily stress appraisals relate to biological aging marker p16INK4a
Center Administrator/Media Contact: Eileen Crimmins