USC Professor Probes the Riddle of Aging : Caleb Finch Looks Ahead to Continued--and Rather Dramatic--Progress in Gerontology
He is definitely not one of your theatrical professors, not the formidable John Houseman of TV’s “The Paper Chase” or the pedantic Professor Higgins of “My Fair Lady.” Caleb Finch is strictly a university professor of the ‘80s--reddish beard, balding pate, plaid shirt, casual pants, friendly, laid-back manner.
Don’t let the picture fool you. Caleb Finch is intent on cracking one of the most pertinent of the late 20th Century’s questions: the neurobiological process of aging.
To that end, Finch, professor of gerontology and biological sciences at USC’s Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center and also an adjunct professor in the USC School of Medicine, is the first holder of the Arco-William F. Kieschnick chair in the neurobiology of aging.
The $1.5-million chair is named in honor of Kieschnick, retired president and chief executive officer of Atlantic Richfield Co. whose community leadership has included a special interest in the aging population. The chair, Finch said, “will provide a source for my salary, strengthen the program in neurobiology and the neurobiology of aging . . . and increase the resources I have.”
Finch, 46, who also is participating in a national study of successful aging funded last fall by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, joined USC’s Andrus Center--one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions in the study of gerontology--in 1972. He brought impressive credentials: a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate in cell biology from Rockefeller University. He is co-director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Consortium of Southern California, one of four national centers funded by the National Institute on Aging, and he has received numerous prestigious professional awards.
His research studies involve the molecular biology of the brain: how hormones affect it, what stress can do, hereditary and environmental factors.
He sat in his third-floor office in the Andrus Gerontology Center, just down the hall from his laboratory, its research equipment and its cages of special mice--meticulously cared for since their role is to live long lives to show the effects of aging--and spoke of his work. He began by saying that the interaction of heredity and environment in aging is not clear, then noted that a person carrying the genes for Huntington’s chorea usually dies before age 50.
“There may be a class of genes that may cause premature death or disease,” Finch said. “There might be genes that favor maintenance of health.
“There probably are hereditary factors; there certainly are environmental factors. There is a slowly dawning recognition of the bad effects of cigarette smoking, that you are going to die younger than you should if you smoke.”
Finch said his research into the aging process, which has been developing over the past 10 years, is aimed at analyzing the role of the brain in the aging process and identifying some parts of the brain as “pacemakers” for the body.
“The endocrine and immune systems control certain parts of the brain and vice versa,” Finch said. “Some of these parts change with the chemistry of the brain--the hypothalamus, for example.”
In animal studies Finch has found that occupancy by the hormone estrogen damages cells of the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that regulates hormones, body temperature, blood pressure, heart beat and metabolism.
Finch spoke of research with neurotransmitters, which he described as “two nerve cells that talk to one another,” much as an electrical spark flashes from one terminal to another.
“One side talks to the other,” he said. “The cell responds because it has a receptor--it’s like a key fitting into a lock. Receptors that are able to recognize are very important. Some seem to decrease with age, and this relates to a number of neurological diseases of aging.
“We have found very selective changes in some parts of the brain. It is now possible to measure these changes in some parts of the brain with scanning devices.”
Finch said that much of the brain-scanning research is being done at Johns Hopkins University and is now only in the experimental stage. Some of the research on families carrying the Huntington’s disease genes have shown “some cryptic or hidden” defect, he said.
Expert on Alzheimer’s
A nationally recognized expert on Alzheimer’s disease, a neurological disease of aging most often evidenced by memory loss and disorientation, Finch is fascinated with the genetic research--and in some awe of its social implications, which include abortion to euthanasia.
“Genetic screening (is) the first step, with lots of implications for human society. You can know if you are carrying the genes for a later-in-life disease, such as Huntington’s,” he said. “Another will be Alzheimer’s disease; between 10% and 50% seem to have some incidence in the family.
“We think the genetic markers are available through amniocentesis. We think we’ll know for Alzheimer’s within 10 years.
“This is a terribly profound ethical question. Do we allow a person to live most of a conventional life span? Through genetic counseling and abortion do we eliminate those with (the potential for) the typical disorders of aging?
“If we eliminate half or even 10% of those with Alzheimer’s, it could be a tremendous blessing to the future world. But nobody feels comfortable about these things.”
Cause of Brain Damage
Finch, whose research involves both animals and post-mortem human tissue, said that animal studies indicate that steroids from the ovary seem to cause damage to the brain.
“This relates to the stress steroids that may cause damage also,” he said. “Steroids in lab animals have irreversible effects on brain damage.
“There are 50 million people who have taken steroids--birth controls, anti-inflammatory medications, estrogen, (the body-building steroids used by) athletes. We do not know if they have long-term effects in humans.”
Finch spoke of the medical research on cigarette smoking, which 20 years ago linked it only to lung cancer, but which now is being found to have an effect on other diseases. He is wary of the possible effects of certain drugs approved for use by humans after having been tested only in animals.
“In another 20 years who knows what we will find?” he said. “We need a 50-year perspective about drugs tested only in animals for a short time. There is a huge amount we do not know concerning side effects or long-term effects, cryptic damage.
“There was an encephalitis epidemic in the ‘20s. Later on those who had had encephalitis were found to have an association with Parkinson’s disease.
“Now there are the side effects of synthetic heroin, including MPTP” (one of the so-called “designer drugs”). “Some people who have taken them develop Parkinson’s within a year. Others have some brain impairments that may require long-term care. . . .
A Professional Musician
“Humans also are going to be their own source of the consequences of their industrial society.”
Finch, who lives with his wife in Altadena, is reticent to talk about his private life--except to say that he has two grown stepsons and that he is a professional musician. A traditional Appalachian Mountain fiddler, Finch, with Caltech biologist Eric Davidson and Brooke Moyer, who trains cutting horses, formed the Iron Mountain String Band, which has recorded three albums and performed the music for Jane Fonda’s TV movie “The Dollmaker.”
He said interest in aging began with contact with family members who lived into their 90s and 100s. He especially mentioned a great-uncle who had been trained at West Point by Civil War officers and who “finally died at 103 from pneumonia after he had a hip replacement” operation.
He looks ahead to continued--and rather dramatic--progress in gerontology, a field that, unlike cancer or immunology with their three or four generations of research, is barely a decade old, he said.
“As we understand what genes are involved in aging,” Finch said, “we may learn how to regulate them. If we can find out when damaging genes become activated we may be able to take action.
“One case fairly soon is the gene for Huntington’s chorea; we expect to isolate the gene in the next three to five years. We insert it in a mouse, then study what the gene does to the aging process of the mouse. We will be able to study human genes in a very specific environment.
Regulators of Aging
“My specific goal is this: I think there is a group of genes that are fundamental regulators of aging, important in the evolution of the brain and the development of the brain. We’d like to identify and characterize those genes.
“Aging has always been considered a part of development because it was a predictable part (of life). I was drawn to consider the mechanisms of aging because of the potential for unifying so many parts. All major metabolic, neurological diseases are clearly age-related.”
Finch is pleased that seven students trained in his lab now are faculty members in other universities.
“The next generation is in place and is looking to fruitful careers,” he said. “That is one of the ways that shows the establishment of a field.
“It is profoundly satisfying to see (the results of the research in) the potential, not just the intellectual, but the applicability to the human condition and the productive phases of one’s life span.
“It’s boggling, breathtaking, what can be done.”
