Dr. Pike graduated magna cum laude from University of Southern California in 1985 with a BS degree in biological sciences. In 1994, he earned his doctoral degree in biological sciences from the University of California Irvine, where his graduate work identified and elucidated the structure-activity relationship of b-amyloid toxicity. He began his postgraduate studies with the Irvine Research Unit in Brain Agingstudying neurodegenerative mechanisms implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Pike joined the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at UC Irvine as an Assistant Research Professor in 1995 with a continued emphasis on Alzheimer’s research. In 1999, Dr. Pike returned to the University of Southern California as the Hanson Family TrustAssistant Professor in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and a member of the USC Neuroscience Program. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005 and Professor in 2012.

Dr. Pike’s research interests continue to focus on Alzheimer’s disease with the general goals of elucidating factors that regulate Alzheimer’s pathogenesis and pursuing translational approaches for the prevention and/or treatment of the disease. Current areas of investigation of his research team include sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease and the relationships between obesity and Alzheimer’s risk. Dr. Pike’s work has been published in over 100 articles and chapters and has been recognized by awards from the Alzheimer’s Association and the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation.