Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care Research Faculty

Research into the aging process is our most powerful tool for promoting longevity (life span) and enhancing quality of life (health span) for older adults.

Alison A. Moore, M.D., M.P.H. Division Chief, brings to UC San Diego over 25 years of research experience focused on the epidemiology and health-related effects of alcohol and other substances among diverse populations; and developing and testing screening and brief interventions to reduce unhealthy alcohol use among older adults and other diverse populations. Her ongoing research in older adults is expanding to include a) cannabis use and b) technology to support older adults. She is also one of the Principal Investigators of an Alzheimer's Disease focused Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (ADRCMAR), funded by the National Institute on Aging to support underrepresented early-stage investigators to conduct research in Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias. She is engaged in work focused on diversity, equity and inclusion in several ways including her research and research training. Finally, she is the director of the UC San Diego Stein Institute for Research on Aging (SIRA) and has been building on its highly successful focus on healthy aging to bring research to the community and to bring community into SIRA.

Anthony Molina, Ph.D. is Chief of Research for the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine. He is the scientific director of the UC San Diego Stein Institute for Research on Aging (SIRA). He joined UC San Diego in 2018 from Wake Forest School of Medicine. He has a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a gerontologist and translational researcher with his main research focus being on the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics in aging and age-related diseases/conditions. Dr. Molina has established a strong track record as a team-oriented, collaborative, translational researcher, both as a Principal Investigator of several NIA-funded multi-disciplinary projects and as a key co-investigator studying the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics in a variety of age-related conditions.

Benjamin H. Han, M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Chief of Research and Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care within the Department of Medicine. He is a geriatrician, addiction medicine physician, and a clinician-researcher. His research focuses on the intersection of chronic medical disease and substance use disorders. The aim of his research is to better manage chronic diseases among adults with substance use disorders as well as understand the changing trends of substance use among older adults. His work integrates the principles of evidence-based geriatric medicine with addiction medicine and harm reduction interventions. He is currently funded by a K23 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to embed geriatric-based interventions into opioid treatment programs.

Biren Kamdar, M.D., M.B.A., M.H.S. is Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine. Dr. Kamdar is a health services researcher is the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. His NIA-funded research focuses on sleep-wake rhythms in the intensive care unit (ICU); in particular, methods to evaluate sleep in critically ill adults and to measure the effect of interventions to improve sleep-wake cycles on delirium and other important outcomes. Dr. Kamdar is also involved in system-wide delirium detection and prevention efforts.

Maile Karris, M.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care, in addition to the Division of Infectious DiseasesandGlobal Public Health. She is a "bedside to bench" research that utilizes her training in translational, clinical, behavioral and implementation science to address the unmet needs of her patients. She is primarily interested in improving the quality of life for older adults living with HIV (OALWH)with historical and current projects including characterization of the syndemics of aging with HIV, exploring the impact of polypharmacy in OALWH on geriatric conditions, implementing the Village model for OALWH, evaluating behavioral therapy for pain management and implementing multi-modal interventions to address syndemics of aging with HIV. She continues to care for PLWH at UCSD's HIV Medicine clinic (Owen clinic) and loves to mentor trainees and junior faculty in her roless as the Co-Director of the Center For AIDS Research Clinical Investigations Core; Vice Chair of Underrepresented Populations and Co-Chair of HIV and Aging Working Group, AIDS Clinical Trials Group; and a co-chair of the American Geriatrics Society Tideswell scientific interest group.

Tala Al-Rousan, M.D., M.P.H. is Assistant Professor and founding faculty at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity brings to UC San Diego expertise in health equity research focusing on marginalized populations. Dr. Al-Rousan has extensive expertise in global health epidemiological research in limited resource settings. She has studied the impact of institutionalization on brain health, function, and disease outcomes in older adults. She studies vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations including refugees in camps, incarcerated adults, older mobile home dwellers in trailer parks and older adults in nursing homes. Trained in medicine and epidemiology in Jordan, Egypt and the US, Dr. Al-Rousan's ongoing research focuses on designing evidence-based interventions and health policies that reduce health disparities using a human rights approach to health and aging. In San Diego, she is currently leading a hypertension self-management intervention study among Middle Eastern and East African refugees and another study assessing perceptions, attitudes and behaviors towards dementia among recently-resettled Syrian and Iraqi refugees, one of the fastest growing foreign-born populations in San Diego. Internationally, she is leading a study on the impact of encampment on cognition in Jordan and Lebanon, and is part of a study assessing hypertension management in Peru, Malawi and Cameroon. Dr. Al-Rousan is a former Doctors Without Borders physician having served in Yemen and at the headquarters in Switzerland, a current Atlantic fellow for Equity in Brain Health at UC San Francisco and the Rhodes House in Oxford, England, and a Bernard Lown Fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

Kiana Aran, Ph.D. is an associate professor of bioengineering and medicine specializing in bioelectronics for multi-omics studies, targeted drug delivery, and aging research with a focus on understanding the role of aging red blood cells in age-related diseases. She is also a pioneer in combining CRISPR with electronics for advanced gene editing and diagnostics. Dr. Aran holds over 32 issued or pending patents and has co-founded two biotechnology companies, Cardea Bio (M&A 2023) and CRISPR QC. Her innovative work has earned her numerous prestigious awards, including Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (2024) with 32 issued or pending patents and 3 commercialized technologies from her lab, Distinguished Medal of Excellence for engineering from Rutgers University (2022), the NSF CAREER Award (2021), Inc. USA’s Top 200 Female Founders (2023), and Distinguished Engineer of the Year from the San Diego Society of Engineers (2024). She was the recipient of the Nature Research Award for Inspiring Women in Science in 2021 and has been recognized by The Scientist for one of the Top 10 Innovations of the year. Additionally, she has been honored with the Athena Pinnacle Award and Clinical OMICs 10 Under 40 Award. Dr. Aran is currently the co-director of the Center for Technologies for Healthy Aging, where she leads efforts to enhance technologies to promote healthy aging.

Annie Nguyen, Ph.D., M.P.H. is an associate professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health. She was previously a faculty member at the University of Southern California for 8 years before making the move to UCSD. Dr. Nguyen is a public and community health researcher and her work focuses on older adults. Her current research lies at the intersection of HIV and aging and ultimately seeks to understand and promote strategies for resilient aging