In this competitive renewal application, the University of Michigan Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (UM Pepper Center), established in 1989, seeks to provide scientific leadership and innovation for aging research to address the central hypothesis that targeting metabolic and inflammatory factors as critical mediators of geriatric conditions and outcomes improves physical and cognitive functions of older adults. The overarching goal of the UM Pepper Center is to create, enhance and maintain a cohesive intellectual, technological, and administrative environment to maximize geriatrics research that will promote health and functional independence in older adults. The UM Pepper Center will pursue its objectives in five Aims.
Aim 1) To support research that addresses the Center?s focus to improve understanding of how metabolic factors and inflammation determine key health outcomes related to mobility and functional status.
Aim 2) To support translational research on the interaction of metabolic factors and inflammation with age-related diseases and comorbidities to improve health outcomes related to mobility and functional status. To achieve the aim, the UM Pepper Center will work closely with other UM programs including the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR), the home of the UM?s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).
Aim 3) To provide Resource Cores that support and assist investigator-initiated projects related to the UM Pepper Center?s research focus.
Aim 4) Through its Research Education Core (REC), to strengthen the UM environment for training of future academic leaders in geriatrics and aging who can conduct research related to the UM Pepper Center?s research focus.
Aim 5) Through its Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (PESC), to attract UM faculty to develop new research projects related to the UM Pepper Center?s research focus. The UM Pepper Center has in place a well-established leadership and administrative structure, a REC, a PESC, and four RCs: the Human Subjects and Assessment Core (HSAC); the Biomechanics Core (BC); the Design, Data and Biostatistics Core (DDBC); and the Core Facility for Aged Rodents (CFAR). The REC features three central elements: 1) a competitive program to select 2 promising UM junior faculty per year to conduct research relevant to the UM Pepper Center?s research and guarantee 50% effort for research career development; 2) a nationally recognized research training program for junior faculty engaged in such research, and 3) a Mentorship Program that enhances opportunities for junior faculty members to work closely with one or more UM senior investigators. The PESC will fund 5 or more pilot projects per year by leveraging OAIC funding with multiple other UM institutional resources. The RC?s will support multiple externally funded projects, the Pepper Center pilot grants and REC junior faculty, and continue to develop and test new methods to be used in Pepper Center research.
The current proposal will document the UM Pepper Center?s outstanding environment for training of junior faculty in geriatrics research and for carrying out and supporting research on health problems of older adults. The UM Pepper Center will emphasize its theme by conducting research that will improve understanding of how metabolic factors and inflammation interact with age-related diseases and comorbidities to determine key health outcomes related to mobility and functional status. OAIC Research Education Core (REC) training activities will help OAIC junior faculty participants apply basic findings to clinical investigation, explore mechanisms underlying clinical and epidemiological findings, and translate basic and clinical findings to a broader older adult community. The Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (PESC) will generate high quality innovative pilot research related to the OAIC theme. The OAIC Biomechanics Core (BC) will assist and train investigators in the conduct of new and expanded research on how metabolic disease and inflammation interact with age-related disease to determine key health outcomes related to mobility and functional status, the biomechanics of aging. The Biomechanics Core will also contribute to the training of geriatricians and other clinicians in the biomechanics relevant to impaired mobility, falls and fall-related injuries, urinary incontinence and prolapse in older people. The OAIC Core Facility for Aged Rodents (CFAR) will develop new varieties of mice that provide insight into the causes and possible treatments of late-life human diseases to help improve clinical care of older people and suggest ways to prevent illness in this population. The OAIC Human Subjects and Assessment Core (HSAC) will provide the infrastructure and ?know how? to accelerate development and translation of basic research to prevent, delay, and treat age-related disabilities and diseases relevant to the theme of the OAIC. The HSAC will be a critical resource for junior investigators engaging in clinical aging research, and provide laboratory researchers new to clinical studies the support they need to engage in human work. The OAIC Design, Data and Biostatistics Core (DDBC) will provide methodological and analytical support to OAIC affiliated investigators to conduct effective, successful and scientifically rigorous research studies.
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