Stacy A. Hussong
Studies how mTOR damages the brain's blood vessels, and how blocking it restores blood flow, the blood-brain barrier and memory in aging and Alzheimer's models
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Physiology & Center for Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center · Oklahoma City VA Medical Center · Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology and Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health San Antonio (c. 2011–2021) · South Texas Veterans Health Care System (c. 2011–2021) · Retinal proteasome research, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Minnesota (c. 2006–2010)
Galvan Lab, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA) ↗ ORCID0000-0003-1957-9086 ↗
Hussong joined Veronica Galvan's group at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio, the lab that was asking a blunt question about the drug rapamycin: it makes mice live longer, but what does a lifetime of it do to the brain? In the 2012 study she is second author on the team that fed mice rapamycin-laced chow from youth to old age and then measured learning, memory, anxiety and depression-like behaviour at every stage. The answer was the reassuring one - young mice learned better, old mice were spared the usual age-related memory decline, and the animals were calmer, with higher levels of the brain's monoamine messengers.
Her earlier training was in a different organ entirely. At the University of Minnesota she worked on the immunoproteasome - a specialised version of the cell's protein-shredding machine - in the retina, showing that it is switched on not only by immune attack but by ordinary oxidative stress and aging, and that cells missing it die more readily. That is essentially the same question she still asks, one system over: how does a cell's quality-control machinery hold up over a lifetime?
In the Galvan lab she moved the focus to the brain's plumbing. Across a series of studies she helped show that mTOR drives the failure of cerebral blood flow, the breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, and the uncoupling of blood supply from neuronal activity - in Alzheimer's models, in vascular cognitive impairment, and in normal aging - and that rapamycin reverses much of it. The lab has since moved with Galvan to Oklahoma City, where Hussong continues this work with the VA.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | A | Chronic inhibition of mTOR by rapamycin modulates cognitive and non-cognitive components of behavior throughout lifespan in mice HAL2012 Second author on the study, part of the Galvan team at the Barshop Institute that carried out the lifespan-long behavioural testing of rapamycin-fed mice. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Stacy A. Hussong.
- Natalia Podlutskaya Contributed, at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio, to mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and improves cognition in normal ageing
- Veronica Galvan Led mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and amyloid build-up, and improves learning in normally ageing mice
Every researcher with a profile →
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Stacy A. Hussong is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- past AGE 54th Annual Meeting 2026 (American Aging Association) ↗ 2–5 Jun 2026 · Provo, Utah, USA · ★★