Ms. Ashendorf provides support and education for patients and families at GMA. She also serves as a mentor and supervisor for social work interns from the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work. At Holly Hall Retirement Center, Ms. Ashendorf provides education and training in geriatric issues to the nursing staff.

Dr. Braun completed her geriatrics fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and is a physician investigator at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. Her current research is supported by a VA Research Career Development Award and focuses on improving the decision-making process for end-of-life care and the quality of end-of-life care, particularly in dementia patients. Her mentors are Laurence McCullough, PhD from the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Rebecca Beyth, MD, MSc. Dr. Braun's research is also supported by a VA-Merit Review (IIR 02-224-1 A culturally sensitive values-guided aid for end-of-life decision-making).

Gretchen Darlington's laboratory carries out basic research studies that address the mechanisms by which differentiated cells of the liver proliferate. Liver cells are capable of regenerating in young animals, but this capacity is greatly reduced in older individuals. Dr. Darlington also directs a NIA sponsored training grant that educates predoctoral and postdoctoral students in methods of scientific investigation in the field of aging.

Dr. Davis studies the molecular and genetic mechanisms that underlie learning and memory. The decline in memory that is often associated with aging is a problem of paramount importance. Dr. Davis hopes that his studies to discover the molecules involved in learning and memory will ultimately help understand the relationship between cognitive ability and aging.

Ms. Farness' role also includes education of the physicians in training and other health professional students that rotate through the clinic. Her special areas of interest are mobility and falls in older adults and problems related to dementing illnesses.

Dr. Garcia sees patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, teaches housestaff and oversees the Fellows. Her special areas of interest are wound care and geriatrics education.

Ms. Gibson is the assistant to Dr. Roy Smith, Director

Ms. Gill is responsible for finding online educational programs and materials in the areas of geriatrics and gerontology for medical professionals and students and recruiting them into The TCGEC's Professional Development Program.

Dr. Luchi serves as the Principal Investigator on numerous grants and oversees the clinical training of the Center. Dr. Luchi is actively involved in the clinical practice of GMA. He sees private patients at Baylor College of Medicine's GMA and treats in-patients at The Methodist Hospital, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Diagnostic Hospital and St. Dominic Nursing Home. Dr. Luchi is the past and founding director of the Huffington Center on Aging, the Section of Geriatrics, and the John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence in Geriatrics.

Dr. McCullough is a philosopher specializing in biomedical ethics. He is active in clinical teaching and consultation for medical students and residents at HVAMC and Texas Children's Hospital and engages in clinically based and theoretical scholarship on ethical issues across the lifespan. He leads the HCOA Ethics Research Group, which has focused on ethical and conceptual dimensions of long-term care decisions by elders and family members. The group is currently pilot testing an intervention to enhance the autonomy of elders in long-term care decisions and is planning a clinical trial of this intervention.

Tonta Marchand assists faculty and administrators in a variety of areas instrumental to their research and teaching.

Benign and malignant pigmentary disorders in the skin increase with aging. Dr. Medrano's laboratory is focused in elucidating mechanisms involved in melanocyte senescence and malignant transformation. To study this, she is analyzing cell cycle regulatory genes and transcription factors which may be involved in the development of lesions such as lentigo senilis (aging spots), melanocytic nevi and malignant melanomas.

Debra Meyer is secretary to Drs. Darlington, Timchenko, Wu, and Zheng; she also coordinates the HCOA Biology of Aging Seminar Series.

Victor Narcisse sees patients as a member of the Geriatrics Medicine Associates.

The broad objective of Dr. Pletcher’s laboratory is to identify and analyze genetic mechanisms of aging that are likely to be important in humans, by focusing on equivalent, conserved processes in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. One particular area of investigation is dietary restriction (also called caloric restriction), where aging is slowed by exposing experimental animals to a reduced-calorie environment.

Dr. Robert E. Reichlin, a licensed clinical psychologist and geropsychologist for over 20 years, maintains a private practice in Bellaire, Texas.  Dr. Reichlin is one of the few clinical psychologists in the greater Houston area who specializes in working with older adults and their families. His web site can be accessed at this URL: http://www.robertreichlinphd.com/. 

Dr. Roush oversees a statewide consortium providing geriatrics education to Texas health professionals. He also teaches Geriatrics Fellows to be better teachers, coordinates continuing education programs, and produces the Arts in Aging Calendar. Additionally, Dr. Roush acts as HCOA Webmaster. Dr. Roush recently completed a three-year term as President of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers.

Representative Publications: 1) Roush RE, Teasdale TA. Personal emergency response systems. The New England Journal of Medicine 1996;335(21):1612.

Dr. Selleck is a physician educator with the clinical practice of Geriatric Medicine Associates and sees inpatients at The Methodist and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospitals. She sees outpatients in their homes and area long-term care facilities. Her special area of interest is end-of-life care.

Dr. Smith is a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging Research. His research focuses on the development, normal senescence, and abnormal degeneration of the nervous system. Through clinical research, he is trying to understand the processes involved in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerois (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Dr. Smith has made significant contributions to Alzheimer's Disease research.

Carolyn Stubbs assists with development activities and with special events.

Dr. Taffet's primary area of research is the impaired cardiac relaxation of senescence. This problem is being explored with biochemical, molecular and physiologic techniques in rats and normal and transgenic mice.

Nikolai Timchenko studies molecular mechanisms that control hepatocyte growth and differentiation. Role of RNA binding proteins and transcription factors in aging associated alterations of cell cycle progression is the focus of his investigations.

Jordan Train, MD graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1988 and completed his residency training in internal medicine at Emory University, Atlanta in 1991. After 9 years in private practice as a hospitalist and medical informatics consultant, Dr. Train joined the Houston VA geriatric service. Dr. Train is the medical director for the Houston VA Medical Center's Home Based Primary Care Program. He developed and obtained research funding for the Houston VA's telemedicine home care project which brings Medical Center technology to elderly home-bound patients. Dr. Train also teaches medical students as an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

Ms. White is responsible for planning and directing the administrative business functions of the center. She works closely with the Director, Faculty Associates, staff, and trainees at HCOA in pre- and post-grant and contract management.

She sees patients as a member of the Geriatrics Medicine Associates.

Ms. Wilson is a gerontological social worker who is interested in training health care professionals of all disciplines to provide comprehensive geriatric care. Her primary research activities are related to community-based long-term care including ethical aspects of care and service delivery to elders and families coping with dementia.

The research projects in Dr. Xiangwei Wu's laboratory are designed to elucidate the function of the tumor suppressor p53 in cell cycle checkpoint control and identification of factors involved in this process. One area of investigation focuses on the post-translational modification of p53, including phosphorylation and acetylation, and how this may affect ubiquitination and degradation, an essential determinant in p53¹s ability to mediate its function. To address how p53 induces cell death by apoptosis, a new putative zinc finger transcription factor Pw1/Peg3 was identified that acts as a potential mediator in p53-dependent apoptosis. The focus of the research is on how p53 and Pw1/Peg3 induce changes in the mitochondria as a critical step in p53-mediated cell death pathway.

Dr. Zheng's research focuses on identifying targets that can be exploited for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer' s disease (AD). AD is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with cognitive impairment and memory loss. It is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Dr. Zheng's laboratory is identifying and characterizing AD related genes and pathways in vivo using transgenic and gene knockout technologies. Three genes have been identified that are genetically linked to AD. These are the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins (PS1 and PS2). Mutations in these genes lead to early onset of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Zheng's laboratory created knockout mice that are deficient in APP or PS1, as well as transgenic mice expressing human APP or PS1 containing mutations that are associated with early onset AD. APP knockout mice are viable but exhibit learning and memory defects. Deletion of PS1 in mice results in embryonic or newborn death, a phenotype that can be rescued by neuronal expression of human PS1. APP transgenic mice develop AD pathology, which is accelerated by PS1 mutations. Analysis of the mice has provided important information regarding the physiological functions of APP and PS1 as well as the pathological mechanisms of disease-causing mutations. Dr. Zheng continues to use mouse genetic approaches to seek further understanding of AD pathogenesis in vivo. This understanding will be critically important for the prevention and treatment of this devastating disease of aging.