Kelvin J. A. Davies is the James E. Birren Chair of Gerontology at the University of Southern California's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Educated at the University of London, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California at Berkeley, he was previously a faculty member at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. Before moving to USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center in 1996, Davies was Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Albany Medical College, where he was also professor of Molecular Medicine.

Deeply involved in research into oxidative stress and free radicals, Davies is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal, Free Radical Biology & Medicine, and President of the International Society for Free Radical Research. He is also a Fellow of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine; a Fellow of The Gerontological Society of America; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and winner of the Harwood S. Belding award of the American Physiological Society.

Davies' research focuses on the genes that repair oxidatively damaged proteins, lipids, RNA, and DNA, and his laboratory has made major contributions to the understanding of this subject over the past twenty years. Davies is currently focusing his research on the regulation of oxidative stress repair genes during aging.

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• University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology

Kelvin J. A. Davies, Ph.D., D.Sc. James E. Birren Chair of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, and Professor of Molecular & Computational Biology in the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0191. Basic Research Interests: regulation of gene expression in oxidative stress & aging; effects of aging on the degradation of oxidatively damaged proteins by the Proteasome and the mitochondrial Lon protease; adaptive responses to oxidative stress in aging; apoptosis, necrosis, and mitoptosis in oxidative stress and aging; role of oxidative stress and changes in stress resistance in the aging process. Clinical Research Interests: Alzheimer, Huntington, Parkinson and Cardiovascular diseases; Inclusion Body Myositis; various muscle wasting diseases; Arthritis; Cataract; Cancer.

Honors and Awards - Kelvin J. A. Davies was born and raised in London, England and is a dual citizen of Great Britain and the U.S.A. Educated at Liverpool University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University, he was previously a faculty member at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, and at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Before moving to USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center in 1996, Professor Davies was Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Albany Medical College, where he was also professor of Molecular Medicine and John A. Muntz University Professor. Deeply involved in research into oxidative stress, free radicals, and aging, Professor Davies is the (founding) Editor-in-Chief of the premier scientific journal in the field, Free Radical Biology & Medicine. He is a former President of the Oxygen Club of California, former President of the (American) Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine, and former President of the International Society for Free Radical Research. Professor Davies is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America; a Fellow of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine; and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His awards include the Harwood S. Belding award of the American Physiological Society; the 50th Anniversary Medal of the University of Gdansk, Poland; and the Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Free Radical Biology & Medicine. He gave the Presidential Lecture of the American College of Sports Medicine in 2007 and was the William A. Pryor Annual Lecturer and Prize winner at Louisiana State University in 2009. Prof. Davies was awarded the degree of Doctor Medicine by both the Russian State Medical University and the University of Gdansk, and the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Moscow. He has an honorary M.D. degree from Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary and an honorary Doctor of the University degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has held Visiting Professorships or Distinguished Visiting Professorships at Cambridge University, the University of Moscow, the University of Ancona, the University of Camerino, the University of Pisa, the University of Rennes, the University of Padova, and the European University of Brittany. In 1996, he was named the National Parkinson Foundation Scholar.

Professional Duties - Professor Davies’ professional responsibilities include: Member of The Research Council of New Zealand (1988-Now); Council Member, International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1995-1999); Council Member, The Gordon Research Conferences (1995-1997); Director, National Parkinson’s laboratory, University of Southern California (1996-Now); Director of the Andrus Gerontology Research Institute, University of Southern California (1996-2002); Associate Dean for Research, School of Gerontology, University of Southern California (1996-2007); Associate Dean, School of Gerontology and Associate Director, Andrus Gerontology Center, USC (2008-2009). Member, Advisory Council, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2003–2006); American Federation for Aging Research, National Scientific Advisory Council (2003-Now); Member, Board of Scientific Counselors, Intramural Research Program, NHLBI - NIH (2005–Now); Scientific Advisory Board Member, Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche, Italy (2000–Now); Scientific Advisory Board Member, University of Siena, Siena, Italy (2003 – Now); Scientific Advisory Board Member, University of Padova, School of Medicine (2007-Now); Scientific Advisory Board Member, Spanish Network on Aging and Frailty (2007-Now); Scientific Advisory Board Member, The Austrian Academy of Sciences (2007-Now).

Corporate Experience - Kelvin Davies also has corporate experience as both Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board and a member of the Board of Directors, of the public company, Intellect Neurosciences Inc. (2000-Now). He is a former Board of Directors Member of the private company, Mindset Inc.

Not-for-Profit Experience - Outside of the scientific world, Kelvin Davies is President Emeritus of the California Philharmonic Orchestra (‘CalPhil’). In 1996 Kelvin Davies and conductor Victor Vener formed the California Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation of which Davies was the first President. Thirteen years later, the ‘CalPhil’ plays to Concert on the Green summer audiences of 5,000 plus per concert at the Los Angeles Arboretum, in addition to regular series at the prestigious Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. Kelvin Davies has negotiated contracts with musicians unions, booked concert venues, planned programs, and negotiated food and beverage concessions and contracts. He has run Board meetings, planned fundraising campaigns, and worked with both private and corporate donors, as well as various foundations, on behalf of CalPhil.

Research Interests and Expertise - Professor Davies' research centers on the role of free radicals and oxidative stress in the biology of aging. In particular he is interested in genes that repair oxidatively damaged proteins, lipids, RNA, and DNA, and his laboratory has made major contributions to our understanding of this subject over the past twenty years. At the Andrus Gerontology Center, Professor Davies is focusing his research on the regulation of oxidative stress repair genes during aging. His laboratory is involved in biochemical, molecular biology, and genetic studies of both normal aging processes, and aging pathologies such as Parkinson and Alzheimer's diseases. During aging, and in several age-related disease processes, vital cellular proteins are damaged by free radicals produced by metabolism, chronic inflammation, radiation, smoke, and by many foods and drugs. These oxidized and non-functional proteins must be removed before they aggregate, cross-link, and become permanent cellular inclusion bodies that propagate damage. Professor Davies’ research group has discovered that the Proteasome (cytoplasm, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum) and the Lon Protease (mitochondria) recognize and selectively degrade such damaged proteins, thus minimizing aggregate formation, and allowing the synthesis of replacement proteins. The Davies group has also discovered that, unfortunately, both the Proteasome and the Lon Protease decline in aging, making older individuals more prone to deterioration and diseases associated with the accumulation of damaged protein aggregates. More recently, the Davies laboratory has discovered that multiple Proteasome subunits, a variant called the Immunoproteasome, Proteasome regulators such as Pa28, Pa200, and HSP90, and the Lon protease are all induced during transient adaptation to oxidative stress. In fact, the Davies laboratory has shown that these inducible Proteasome and Lon components are actually required for successful oxidative stress adaptation. Importantly, these adaptive increases in Proteasome and Lon subunits and enzymatic activities are substantially decreased in aging, thus diminishing the ability of older cells to adapt to oxidative stress. The mechanisms by which damaged protein aggregates accumulate, and signal transduction pathways to activate transcription/translation of the Proteasome and Lon Protease decline, thus contributing to various age-related diseases, is now a major interest.

While one half of the Davies laboratory works on proteins, the other half is studying the genetic basis of adaptation to oxidative stress, and has discovered seven new genes that contribute to stress resistance. One of these genes, called RCAN1, unfortunately seems to have a dual nature; a Janus (or Jeckyll and Hyde) gene? The RCAN1 gene consists of seven exons that undergo differential splicing to encode an entire family of proteins, called the RCAN1 proteins, that inhibit the serine/threonine phosphatase, Calcineurin. When expressed transiently, RCAN1’s seem to promote a strong and protective adaptive response to stress by preventing calcineurin from turning off the stress response. When RCAN1 is expressed chronically, however, it seems to promote hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles, which are common features of both Down syndrome and Alzheimer disease. In postmortem studies, the Davies group has found very high levels of RCAN1 expression in the brains of Alzheimer disease and Down syndrome patients. Conversely, Huntington disease patients display a chronic under-expression of RCAN1 which seems to be linked to the severity of the disease and/or the age of onset of clinical symptoms. The group is now trying to determine whether or not RCAN1 is actually a causal factor in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. The Davies laboratory also has interests in RCAN1 as a regulator of muscle hypertrophy and of immune function. RCAN1 promotes muscle hypertrophy and could be a cellular gene therapy target to combat various muscle wasting abnormalities in aging. Organ transplant patients (liver, kidney, heart, lungs, etc.) all have to be given immune-suppressive drugs which work by inhibiting calcineurin throughout the body; unfortunately, systemic inhibition of calcineurin is an extremely heavy-handed approach to the problem of organ rejection, and creates a vast array of dangerous side-effects. The Davies laboratory is interested in pursuing selective activation of the natural calcineurin inhibitor, RCAN1 only in the organs where it would be useful, as an alternative to systemic immune suppression.

Education - Professor Davies is vitally interested in education. He is the Founder of the Los Angeles County School District/USC S.T.A.R. program, a science/medical magnet program for high school students in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The STAR Program is a collaborative science education venture involving the university of Southern California, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, El Sereno Middle School and Murchison Elementary School. STAR educates children and their teachers - from kindergarten through 12th grade - about science, math, and engineering. The STAR program, founded by Davies in 1985, has impacted more than 2,500 inner-city students through a combination of direct research experience, peer mentoring, science fair participation and graduate student instruction. STAR’s most prestigious component is a two-year internship in a research laboratory at USC’s Health Sciences campus. Each year, about 25 juniors and seniors from Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School spend weekday afternoons learning to do research. Thus far, all of these students have earned degrees from four-year colleges, and 80 percent of them have gone on to graduate or professional school.

Interests - In his youth, Kelvin Davies was a gymnast, a rock climber and kayaker, a soccer and rugby player, and youth-team all-county cricket player. As an adult he is a devotee of opera and classical music, but has been an outward bound leader, a boy scout leader, a soccer coach, a high school football boosters club director, a former Board of Trustees member of the Albany Academy for Boys, and a former high school teacher and youth club director. He is a passionate sailor and spends much of his free time on the ‘high seas’ in his 42 foot Jeanneau sailboat.

Family - Kelvin Davies lives in San Marino, California with his wife, Joanna M.S. Davies, M.D., a fellow faculty member at USC's Andrus Gerontology Center, medical specialist in Rheumatology and Osteoporosis, and Director of the Osteoporosis Center of Los Angeles. They have one son in law school and one who is a senior at USC.