About GCG & Staff Listings
The Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology (DGCG) supports clinical and translational research on health and disease in the aged, and research on aging over the human life span, including its relationships to health outcomes. DGCG foci include translational research for the development of new interventions for age-related conditions, prevention and treatment of multiple chronic conditions in the elderly, and studies that help to promote evidenced based geriatric care and inform policies affecting older adults.
DGCG comprises three major research areas administered by three Branches: Geriatrics, Clinical Gerontology, and Clinical Trials. Division-wide emphases include research training and career development to for investigators across a wide range of specialties to expand their capabilities to address clinical aging issues, and the application of new technologies to expand opportunities for clinical aging research.
For inquiries, potential applicants are encouraged to review the scientific areas of responsibility of DGCG staff listed below. If you are unsure of whom to contact with regard to your proposed project, please feel free to contact the Branch Chief and he/she will direct your inquiry to the appropriate staff member.
Download the DGCG brochure (PDF, 149K)
Office of the Director
Evan Hadley serves as the Division Director and is responsible for the overall program development and scientific direction of DGCG.
Winnie Rossi serves as the Division Deputy Director and is responsible for the operation of the Division, including overseeing the grants and administrative activities and budgets, and program analysis.
Rosaly Correa-de-Araujo serves as Senior Scientific Advisor to the Division Director and is responsible for the AgingResearchBiobank. Main areas of work/expertise are on biobanking and data repositories, involving establishment, scientific and business operations, resources sharing, policy development, best practices, bioethics and regulatory issues. Additional expertise includes myosteatosis, muscle quality and skeletal muscle functional deficit.
Geriatrics Branch
The Geriatrics Branch focuses on health issues regarding the aged. Research emphases include multifactorial geriatric syndromes such as risk for falls; symptomatic problems such as pain and fatigue; various types of disability; effects and interactions of multiple chronic conditions and development of effective treatment strategies for patients with multiple chronic conditions; effects of age-related changes on clinical or functional disease outcomes or treatment responses; effects of physical activity on disease and disability in older persons; and the elucidation, diagnosis, and treatment of previously unappreciated pathologic changes in old age (e.g., sarcopenia, vascular stiffening, diastolic dysfunction). The Geriatrics Branch also supports the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAICs) which conduct basic and clinical research to develop more effective interventions to enhance the ability of older people to maintain independence.
Geriatrics Branch Staff and Areas of Scientific Responsibility
Basil Eldadah, Chief
- Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAICs)
- Palliative care / symptoms research (pain, fatigue, fatigability)
- HIV / AIDS
- Geriatric oncology
- Dysphagia
- General geriatrics
Lyndon Joseph
- Clinical musculoskeletal conditions (e.g., (osteoporosis, fractures, sarcopenia)
- Physical activity / sedentary behavior
- Gait / biomechanics
- Falls / fall prevention
- Testosterone / growth factors
- Metabolism / diabetes / obesity
Marcel Salive
- Multiple chronic conditions
- Deprescribing / polypharmacy
- Infectious diseases / vaccination
- Wound healing / skin ulcers
- Incontinence
- Preventive medicine
- Geriatric oncology
- Clinical decision making
- Health services research
Susan Zieman
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Hypertension / arterial stiffness
- Clinical specialty liaison (particularly hematology, nephrology, pulmonary/critical care, emergency medicine, gastroenterology, transplantation)
- Delirium
- Oropharyngeal / dental research
Clinical Gerontology Branch
The Clinical Gerontology Branch focuses on clinically-related research on aging changes over the life span. Research emphases include factors affecting development of age-related conditions and disease risk factors (particularly for multiple age-related conditions) and interventions influencing these factors; exceptionally healthy aging (including exceptional longevity); protective factors against multiple age-related conditions; menopause and mid-life aging changes; translational human research to follow up findings from basic research on aging; long-term effects of current or new interventions that may be administered over a large part of the lifespan; and long-term effects of physical activity throughout the lifespan.
Clinical Gerontology Branch Staff and Areas of Scientific Responsibility
Chhanda Dutta, Chief
- Menopause/reproductive aging
- Role of physical activity/exercise on health span
- Physiological changes (e.g., cardiovascular, endocrine, metabolism, immune function, musculoskeletal) across the lifespan
- Studies of health trajectories, including risk or protective factors, across the lifespan (e.g., childhood into young adulthood, young adulthood to middle age, middle- to old-age)
- Changes in stem/progenitor cells with aging
- Juvenile protective factors
- Clinical translational research on aging
- Development and validation of aging mechanistic markers
Nalini Raghavachari
- Translational Genomics and Healthy Aging
- Genetics of Longevity
- Genetic Epidemiology
- Exceptionally healthy aging
Clinical Trials Branch
The Clinical Trials Branch plans and administers clinical trials on age-related issues. Research emphases include interventions to prevent or treat "geriatric syndromes," disability, and complications of comorbidity or polypharmacy; trials to determine effects of interventions that influence multiple risk factors and outcomes in older persons, trials to detect age- or comorbidity-related differences in responses to interventions against conditions found in middle age and old age; interventions for problems associated with menopause and other mid- and late-life changes; interventions that may affect rates of progression of age-related declines in function in early and mid-life; and interventions with protective effects against multiple conditions.
Clinical Trials Branch Staff and Areas of Scientific Responsibility
The Clinical Trials Branch manages diverse areas of scientific responsibility, which include but are not limited to interventional studies on falls, physical function and disability, age-related hormonal changes, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, anemia, urinary incontinence, and other.
Sergei Romashkan, Chief
- Drug and device clinical trials on falls, bone health, physical function and disability, age-related hormonal changes, cardiovascular disease, anemia, urinary incontinence, caloric restriction, metabolic disorders, and othe
- Interventions modulating fundamental aging mechanisms
- DGCG clinical trials advisory panel
- Clinical trials methodology and design
- Data and safety monitoring, human participants’ safety, and well-being
- Clinical trials regulations and policies
Barbara Radziszewska
- Behavioral interventional studies on cardiovascular disease, falls, physical function and disability, urinary incontinence, caloric restriction, and metabolic disorders
- Interventional studies on health care delivery strategies, advanced care planning, and disease management in institutionalized older adults
- Participant enrollment and inclusion across the lifespan
- Clinical trials regulations and policies
Irina Sazonova
- First-in-Human and Proof-of-Concept translational studies for agents modulating fundamental aging-related mechanisms for which there is adequate pre-clinical safety data
- Early efficacy and safety clinical trials of compounds that could treat individual or multiple age-related conditions by modulating fundamental aging-related mechanisms
- Small Business Innovation Research
Maggie Nellissery
- Drug and device clinical trials on cancer, menopause, physical function and disability, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disorders, and other
- Nutritional interventions
- Clinical trials methodology and design
- Clinical trials regulations and policies
