USC ADRC leaders bring expertise in neurology, brain imaging, biomarkers, genetics, neuropathology, data science, and community engagement. Select a core to meet its team.
USC ADRC leaders bring expertise in neurology, brain imaging, biomarkers, genetics, neuropathology, data science, and community engagement. Select a core to meet its team.
Core Lead
Dr. Chui is the Raymond and Betty McCarron Professor of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She has served as chair of the Department of Neurology and director of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center since 2003. Dr. Chui earned her BA in chemistry and MD at Johns Hopkins University. She completed her residency in neurology and fellowship in behavioral neurology at the University of Iowa in 1981.
Dr. Chui is internationally recognized for her research on Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment. She is the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and 40 book chapters and review articles. She is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging for studies of neurovascular health, using physiological measures of vasoreactivity, stiffness, pulsatility, and morphological characteristics of the cerebrovascular tree.
CHP 215, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9207
Co-Core Lead
Arthur W. Toga, PhD, is Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering, and director of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Dr. Toga’s research focuses on neurodegenerative disease, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. He has pioneered some of the most widely used informatics systems in the world (e.g., IDA and GAAIN), supporting more than 150 multisite trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. His interdisciplinary work led to the creation of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), which he also directs and which is one of the most advanced multidisciplinary neurological research centers. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, among others, as well as industry partners, LONI houses one of the largest computing facilities dedicated to the field and one of the largest brain image repositories in the world.
He is an author or co-author of more than 1,100 peer-reviewed publications, over 1,100 abstracts, and 80 book chapters and books, among them Brain Mapping: The Methods. He is the founding editor of the journal NeuroImage. Dr. Toga has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Pioneer in Medicine Award, the Smithsonian Award for Scientific Innovation, and the Giovanni DiChiro Award for Outstanding Scientific Research. He holds the Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience and has been ranked among the world’s top researchers on the AD Scientific Index, named one of the Top 200 Best Scientists in Neuroscience by Research.com, and listed for many years as a Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.
SHN, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Core Lead
Dr. Rissman is Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience and the W.M. Keck Endowed Professor in Medicine. He is the founding director of the Neuroscience Translational Research Division and the ATRI Biomarker Laboratory and Biorepository. He is the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) Biorepository Unit Lead.
Dr. Rissman’s basic science research focuses on novel biomarker discovery in Alzheimer’s disease and on preclinical studies in experimental models. A major focus of his lab is the utility and mechanistic underpinnings of neuronal exosomes, and his group has published work showing that tau and amyloid-beta in neuronal exosomes can predict conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease. The lab also investigates how stress and changes in stress-signaling intermediates contribute to Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. Using transgenic mice and in vivo pharmacology, the lab studies the role of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors in beta-amyloid deposition, tau phosphorylation, and behavioral and synaptic changes.
1501 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Core Lead
Dr. Schneider is internationally recognized in clinical drug development for Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive disorders, and neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders. He has led numerous clinical trials of therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment, consults with many development programs, and has helped design and run several early- and later-phase proprietary development programs for Alzheimer’s disease. He has directed multicenter trials in Alzheimer’s disease and major depression, including the paradigm-shifting CATIE-AD trial. More recently, he has examined evidence for changes over time in Alzheimer’s trial characteristics and outcomes, and he uses trial simulations from large meta-databases to assess how Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers and genotypes affect the efficiency of targeted clinical trials. He serves on the steering committees of the NIH ADCS, the NIH ADNI, and the Banner Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative.
CHP-216, 1540 Alcazar Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9009
Co-Core Lead
Elizabeth Joe, MD, is a behavioral neurologist at the USC Memory and Aging Center and the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where she sees people with memory disorders for clinical care and research assessments. She also co-leads the USC CSF Diversion Center for the care of patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Her research focuses on improving the health care system for people with dementia and their caregivers. She developed and led a shared medical appointments program for memory care and is piloting a similar program for patients with neurologic disorders within the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. She completed medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine and her neurology residency and fellowship training at USC.
1520 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Ringman is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the Memory and Aging Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology and neurobiology at UC Berkeley before attending medical school at McGill University and completing his internship and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He then came to Los Angeles for subspecialty training in behavioral neurology and dementia. He studies people who have or are destined to develop familial Alzheimer’s disease due to known genetic mutations, conducts clinical research on late-onset Alzheimer’s disease with the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and sees patients with cognitive or behavioral problems related to neurological, and particularly neurodegenerative, disease.
CHP 210, 1540 Alcazar Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Segal-Gidan is Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and director of the CADC at RLNRC (CADC-Rancho). She is a licensed physician associate (PA), holds a doctoral degree in health policy, and formerly led the ADRC ORE Core. CADC-Rancho serves as a gateway for the ADRC’s plan to enhance diverse perspectives in research, inviting Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) patients with memory concerns, particularly from Latino and other underrepresented communities, to take part in ADRC studies. She works closely with colleagues at other DHS facilities and with the ADRC Clinical and ORE Cores.
OCH Rlm, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Michael Harrington is a Professor of Research in Neurology at the University of Southern California. He is a senior NIH-funded neuroscientist with expertise in disease pathophysiology and biomarker studies. He assists with the standardized completion of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set, version 4 (UDSv4).
1510 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. D’Orazio is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology and a bilingual (English and Spanish), bicultural, licensed clinical neuropsychologist who performs, oversees, and guides Spanish- and English-language cognitive assessments at the USC ADRC. She ensures that Spanish-language cognitive testing follows protocol and is responsible for ongoing scoring, quality control, and interpretation of these tests. Dr. D’Orazio also helps select and train all graduate student testers and staff psychometricians. She is particularly qualified to recruit, select, and train Spanish-speaking testers and testers from underrepresented groups.
1520 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Pawluczyk is a bilingual (English and Spanish) geriatric psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry who has worked in the field of dementia for more than 30 years. During this time, she has worked with Dr. Schneider in the pharmacology program, and she has a major role in operating the Clinical Core and affiliated ADRC-supported studies. As a senior clinician, she assesses participant eligibility for the Clinical Core, the general research pool, clinical trials, and external requests for participant resources. As part of each evaluation, she completes all research documentation, including the UDSv4, in collaboration with the senior research nurse and the UDS coordinator. She is responsible for ensuring quality patient care.
HCT 3000, 1520 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9409
Core Lead
Arthur W. Toga, PhD, is Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering, and director of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Dr. Toga’s research focuses on neurodegenerative disease, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. He has pioneered some of the most widely used informatics systems in the world (e.g., IDA and GAAIN), supporting more than 150 multisite trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. His interdisciplinary work led to the creation of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), which he also directs and which is one of the most advanced multidisciplinary neurological research centers. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, among others, as well as industry partners, LONI houses one of the largest computing facilities dedicated to the field and one of the largest brain image repositories in the world.
He is an author or co-author of more than 1,100 peer-reviewed publications, over 1,100 abstracts, and 80 book chapters and books, among them Brain Mapping: The Methods. He is the founding editor of the journal NeuroImage. Dr. Toga has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Pioneer in Medicine Award, the Smithsonian Award for Scientific Innovation, and the Giovanni DiChiro Award for Outstanding Scientific Research. He holds the Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience and has been ranked among the world’s top researchers on the AD Scientific Index, named one of the Top 200 Best Scientists in Neuroscience by Research.com, and listed for many years as a Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.
SHN, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Daniel Nation received his doctorate in clinical health psychology from the University of Miami in 2009, where his dissertation focused on the effect of oxytocin on atherosclerosis in apoE knockout mice. He completed his clinical internship in neuropsychology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD)/VA San Diego Healthcare System and remained there for an NIH-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship in biological psychiatry and neuroscience. His research focuses on vascular risk factors and biomarkers of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, including markers of cerebrovascular dysfunction, blood-brain barrier breakdown, and endothelial progenitor cell depletion.
GER 226A, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Dr. Conti is a professor in the Division of Biostatistics in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is also the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Chair in Cancer Prevention and associate director for data science at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
SSB 202, 2001 N. Soto Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Core Lead
Arthur W. Toga, PhD, is Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering, and director of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Dr. Toga’s research focuses on neurodegenerative disease, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. He has pioneered some of the most widely used informatics systems in the world (e.g., IDA and GAAIN), supporting more than 150 multisite trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. His interdisciplinary work led to the creation of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), which he also directs and which is one of the most advanced multidisciplinary neurological research centers. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, among others, as well as industry partners, LONI houses one of the largest computing facilities dedicated to the field and one of the largest brain image repositories in the world.
He is an author or co-author of more than 1,100 peer-reviewed publications, over 1,100 abstracts, and 80 book chapters and books, among them Brain Mapping: The Methods. He is the founding editor of the journal NeuroImage. Dr. Toga has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Pioneer in Medicine Award, the Smithsonian Award for Scientific Innovation, and the Giovanni DiChiro Award for Outstanding Scientific Research. He holds the Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience and has been ranked among the world’s top researchers on the AD Scientific Index, named one of the Top 200 Best Scientists in Neuroscience by Research.com, and listed for many years as a Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher.
SHN, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Shi is a Professor of Neurology and Electrical Engineering at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. His research focuses on developing novel mathematical frameworks and algorithms for mapping neuroanatomical structure and function. He has extensive experience in analysis methods for diffusion imaging data and mathematical models for vessel segmentation. For the ADRC, he applies these algorithms to analyze brain connectivity from multi-shell diffusion imaging data and vessel integrity from other MRI modalities.
SHN, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Meredith Braskie is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California. For the ADRC, she analyzes and interprets MRI data, oversees MRI-related data flow and analyses, and reviews MRI methods sections for manuscripts. Dr. Braskie has a strong record of publications in neuroimaging, including structural MRI (with high-resolution hippocampal analyses), functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and PET. Her research focuses on Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive aging.
ISI, 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 200, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Core Lead
Annie Hiniker, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Neuropathology Core. Dr. Hiniker’s research combines classical neuropathology with cell biology, omics, and seeding assays to define the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on LRRK2-mediated neurodegeneration. Dr. Hiniker was elected to AOA at the University of Michigan, where she completed her MD and PhD; she completed residency and fellowship in anatomic pathology and neuropathology at UCSF. Before joining USC in 2024, she was Assistant Professor and co-director of the ADRC Neuropathology Core at UC San Diego. Current and past funding sources include NINDS, the Epstein Family Foundation, the AFAR Paul B. Beeson Award, the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Parkinson’s Disease Early Investigator Award, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the American Parkinson Disease Association. She has been a member of the American Association of Neuropathologists (AANP) since 2010, co-directs the AANP Neurodegenerative Scholars R13 program, serves on the AANP Education Committee, and is a member of the editorial board of Free Neuropathology.
2011 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Bienkowski studies brain cell types and their susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and retinal degenerative diseases. His translational research laboratory, the USC Center for Integrative Connectomics at the Stevens INI, uses connectomics and transcriptomics approaches to investigate cell type-specific progressive changes in gene expression and connectivity in rodent and human brain tissue. A major goal of the lab is to build translational cell type atlases that guide clinical drug development and improve treatment at different disease stages.
ZNI, 1501 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Hawes earned a certificate in vocational nursing from Santa Ana College and a BA in French from Cal State Fullerton. After medical school, where she was named to the Dean’s List of Outstanding Achievement in the Basic Sciences, she joined the Keck School of Medicine of USC as a resident in the pathology department at LAC+USC Medical Center. Dr. Hawes is an assistant professor of clinical pathology and an instructor in the Pathology Multidisciplinary Laboratories at USC. She has reviewed manuscripts for several medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. Her research interests include cancer prevention, new technology development, and biological markers of disease progression. Dr. Hawes has co-authored nearly 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters and abstracts.
CHL, 4650 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Core Lead
Maria P. Aranda, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging. Her research focuses on psychosocial care for adults and older adults with psychiatric disorders, including depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Aranda’s work explores disparities in health services and develops interventions to ease the burdens faced by people with medical and psychiatric conditions and their caregivers. She has led studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Aranda co-founded El Portal, a family support program for low-income, Spanish-speaking families managing neurodegenerative disorders, which has become a national model. She has served on numerous boards and committees focused on practice, policy, and research for underrepresented populations, including National Academy of Medicine consensus committees on family caregiving, functional assessment, and mental health service delivery.
2011 Zonal Avenue, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Co-Core Lead
Dr. Ringman is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the Memory and Aging Center at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology and neurobiology at UC Berkeley before attending medical school at McGill University and completing his internship and residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He then came to Los Angeles for subspecialty training in behavioral neurology and dementia. He studies people who have or are destined to develop familial Alzheimer’s disease due to known genetic mutations, conducts clinical research on late-onset Alzheimer’s disease with the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and sees patients with cognitive or behavioral problems related to neurological, and particularly neurodegenerative, disease.
CHP 210, 1540 Alcazar Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Towfighi is associate chair of the USC Department of Neurology, director of neurological services for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), and chief of neurology at Los Angeles General Medical Center. In these roles, she supports the ORE Core’s plan to enhance diverse perspectives in research, strengthens the partnership between DHS and the USC ADRC, and helps streamline the appropriate recruitment of DHS patients for research.
Core Lead
Dr. Hussein Yassine, professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, holds the Kenneth and Bette Volk Endowed Chair of Neurology. Dr. Yassine’s lab studies how changes in brain lipid metabolism predispose individuals to develop Alzheimer’s disease pathology, with a focus on how APOE affects brain lipid metabolism. Dr. Yassine is also director of the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health (CPBH), dedicated to patients carrying the APOE4 allele. The CPBH serves as a translational bridge between basic and clinical neuroscience, focused on understanding and mitigating the adverse effects of APOE4 on brain health. Dr. Yassine collaborates with experts across multiple fields to advance early detection and treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s disease.
ZNI 323, 1501 San Pablo St, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Co-Core Lead
Duke Han, PhD, is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and tenured Professor of Psychology, Family Medicine, Neurology, and Gerontology at the University of Southern California. He earned his BS in psychology with a specialization in neuroscience from Duke University and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. He trained in neuropsychology and neuroimaging at Harvard Medical School and the University of California San Diego. Dr. Han’s research focuses on factors that affect cognition and decision-making in aging. He directs a federally funded research lab and co-leads the Research Education Component of the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He is editor-in-chief of The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and a founding member of the Global Council on Brain Health. His work has been featured in outlets including Reuters, PBS, and Forbes.
1501 San Pablo Street, Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Dr. Zissimopoulos is a professor in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and co-director of the Aging and Cognition Program at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. She is principal investigator of the NIH-funded Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) focused on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and of the NIA-funded Center for Advancing Sociodemographic and Economic Study of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (CeASES-ADRD). Dr. Zissimopoulos has trained 45 junior scientists, including 11 assistant professors, 17 postdoctoral fellows, and 17 predoctoral fellows, and she supports ADRC training activities.
VPD 412H, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089-3333