This conference grant application (R13) requests support for planning, organizing, publicizing, and hosting a special workshop entitled, """"""""Nonhuman Primate Models of Aging: Their Current Status and Future Potential."""""""" The workshop will be held May 31-June 1, 2001, at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and will be hosted by the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center (WRPRC), University of Wisconsin-Madison. The workshop will be held as a satellite event to the 30th annual meeting of the American Aging Association (AGE) to be convened June 2-4, 2001, at the same location. The AGE meeting will also include a special meeting and presentations by grantees of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). The objective of the workshop proposed herein is to promote an exchange of information among researchers who use various species of nonhuman primates to model age-related disease and functional decline. The meeting will be organized across 1.5 days. On the afternoon of May 31, the session will consist of presentations on microcebus (Microcebus murinus), marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus), cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis), baboons (Papio hamadryas), and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). A working dinner will be held on the evening of May 31. Because the vast majority of research in this area has been conducted in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), the entire second day will focus exclusively on studies using this species- The morning session will include presentations on reproductive, cardiovascular, and sensory function, the skeletal system, sarcopenia, oxidative stress, glucose regulation and diabetes. The afternoon session on June 1 will focus on neurobiological and behavioral studies of aging rhesus monkeys. A poster session will be held on the evening of June 1. Research concerning nonhuman primate models of aging has shown marked growth over the last decade. Continued progress requires cooperative and integrative approaches, because the relatively long lives of primates increase the time, as well as increase the cost, required for longitudinal studies. This workshop will permit investigators to learn about the research of others in the area and to engage in productive discussion, and it will promote collaborative studies. Holding the workshop as a satellite to the AGE meeting will provide extra benefits. Members of the workshop will be encouraged to attend the AGE meeting to learn about broad areas of gerontological research that might be relevant to their nonhuman primate studies. In addition, scientists planning to attend the AGE meeting will be invited to attend the workshop to learn about the growing value of nonhuman primates for gerontological research. The location in Madison is also beneficial because it will permit the dozens of scientists and students at the University of Wisconsin and the WRPRC who are interested in aging research to attend the workshop. A final objective of the workshop is to provide attendees information on the development of the Primate Aging Database (PAD), which is a joint project of the WRPRC, the National Center for Research Resources, and the National Institute on Aging. Attendees will be given a demonstration of the software for PAD and will be encouraged to participant in the project.
