As the USC Trojans prepare to face the Indiana University Hoosiers on Saturday for a high-stakes football matchup in the 2026–27 season, attention centers not just on roster decisions and player statistics, but also on a partnership between the two universities focused on brain health and medical research.
Scholars across both institutions collaborate frequently on major scientific studies, targeting dementia-related conditions and critical public health challenges.
“USC is a worldwide leader in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related research, in addition to other key areas of study,” said Ishwar K. Puri, senior vice president of research and innovation and professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
“Scholars at both universities are committed to moving the needle on diagnosing, treating and preventing dementia-related diseases for the benefit of society,” Puri added.
Cross-University Research on Brain Health
Faculty members at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Indiana University School of Medicine lead multiple multi-institution projects addressing neurodegenerative disorders. Paul Aisen, professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine and director of the USC Epstein Family Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute, maintains active collaborations with several Indiana University counterparts.
Aisen works alongside Indiana Professor Emeritus of Neurology Martin Farlow and Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology Jared Brosch on the Alzheimer’s Plasma Extension Study. This observational, multicenter project tracks how cognitive function, brain amyloid, and blood-based biomarkers change over time, examining how those trajectories differ by sex, race, ethnicity, and apolipoprotein E status.
Aisen and Brosch also participate in the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium, a collaborative network designed to accelerate innovation in clinical research.
Their joint efforts extend to the Alzheimer’s Tau Platform clinical trial—which evaluates new therapeutic strategies to reduce harmful protein buildups in the brain—and the Longitudinal Follow-up of Clinical Trial Participants for Brain Donation, an initiative that helps clinicians and families understand disease progression while securing vital brain tissue for future laboratory analysis.
Specialized patient populations also form a core focus of these joint initiatives. Arthur Toga, a Provost Professor at the Keck School of Medicine and director of the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute alongside its Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, served as a co-principal investigator on the second phase of the Korean Brain Aging Study.
He collaborated with Andrew Saykin, director of the Center for Neuroimaging and the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In this partnership, USC’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging stores and shares multimodal neuroimaging scan data to advance early diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer’s disease.
Michael S. Rafii, professor of clinical neurology at USC, partnered with former Indiana University School of Medicine Assistant Professor Cassie Karlsson on a National Institute on Aging-funded clinical trial aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Rafii also collaborated with Indiana University Professor of Clinical Psychiatry Jill Fodstad to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of the medication Donanemab in adults with Down syndrome.
Interdisciplinary Ventures Beyond Neurology
Beyond neuroscience, the academic partnership spans computer science and surgical care. Ewa Deelman, research professor of computer science at USC Viterbi and principal scientist at the USC Information Sciences Institute, served as co-principal investigator alongside Indiana University Associate Professor Angela Murillo on a data preservation and archival project.
According to Deelman, her contribution centered on examining data preservation and archival practices at major National Science Foundation multi-user research facilities, resulting in formal recommendations for those installations and the broader cyberinfrastructure community.
In the surgical field, Joseph Thomas Patterson, associate professor of orthopedic surgery, partnered with Indiana University School of Medicine Assistant Professor Yohan Jang on a trial investigating whether early surgical intervention outperforms nonoperative care and early rehabilitation in reducing complications for patients suffering from pelvis fractures.
