The Boston Older Americans Independence Center (Boston OAIC) has transcended the departmental, institutional, and disciplinary boundaries to forge an interdisciplinary research network to foster translational research in function promoting therapies (FPTs) ? pharmacologic, physical, nutritional, technological and behavioral interventions that reduce the burden of disabling functional limitations in older adults. In its first 5 years of funding, Boston OAIC investigators published 255 publications; received $88 million in grants; participated in seminal randomized trials of FPTs; established new methods for physical function and disability, and biomarkers of FPT action; filed 4 patents and started 3 new companies; led the consensus panels on sarcopenia and FPT trial design. The contributions of the Boston OAIC investigators to OAIC-wide collaborative projects, including the STRIDE Study, the T Trials, The Sarcopenia Biomarkers Initiative, the Multi-Mod Hip Fracture Consortium, the SARM-PC Trial, the LIFE, and ENERGISE trials illustrate the remarkable power of the multi-institutional research network model exemplified by the Boston OAIC. The Boston OAIC will integrate 19 NIH-funded studies, 3 Research Education Core projects, 3 pilot projects, and 3 developmental projects into an interdisciplinary program that is supported by a Leadership and Administrative Core, a Research Education Core (REC), a Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (PESC), and 3 resource cores (Function Assessment Core, Preclinical Discovery Core, Biostatistical and Data Analysis Core). Our REC and PESC candidates include several rising stars in Geriatrics and Gerontology, including 3 Beeson and K grant awardees. The Boston OAIC is unique in its thematic focus on FPTs and its positioning across the entire spectrum of translational science from mechanism elucidation, preclinical proof-of-concept studies, biomarker validation, epidemiologic investigation to randomized trials of FPTs. The REC will recruit the most promising stars from a vast reservoir of talent at Harvard, Tufts and BU, and train them through a didactic education and mentored research program. Integration will be achieved by the PROMOTE Program that includes a research concierge service, research meetings, annual retreats, a website and a newsletter. With the inclusion of several Harvard geriatricians in its leadership, the Boston OAIC is now well integrated with the the Harvard Geriatrics and Gerontology research community and programs, including its T32 training grant, Harvard Clinical Translational Science Institute, the Roybal Center, The New England Geriatrics Research Clinical Education Center, and the Glenn Foundation Center for Biology of Aging. Unique strengths of OAIC include its focus on FPTs, emphasis on translation and commercialization, access to a large pool of talented young investigators, its extension across the entire spectrum of translational research, the outstanding productivity of its members, strong institutional support, and its success in developing intellectual property and companies, and supporting some of the most important randomized trials of FPTs.
The Boston Older Americans Independence Center (Boston OAIC) has transcended the departmental, institutional, and disciplinary boundaries to forge an interdisciplinary research network to foster translational research in function promoting therapies (FPTs) ? pharmacologic, physical, nutritional, technological and behavioral interventions that reduce the burden of disabling functional limitations in older adults. The Boston OAIC will integrate 19 NIH-funded studies, 3 Research Education Core projects, 3 pilot projects, and 3 developmental projects into an interdisciplinary program that is supported by a Leadership and Administrative Core, a Research Education Core (REC), a Pilot and Exploratory Studies Core (PESC), and 3 resource cores (Function Assessment Core, Preclinical Discovery Core, Biostatistical and Data Analysis Core). Unique strengths of OAIC include its focus on FPTs, emphasis on translation and commercialization, access to a large pool of talented young investigators, its extension across the entire spectrum of translational research, the outstanding productivity of its members, strong institutional support, and its success in developing intellectual property and companies, and supporting some of the most important randomized trials of FPTs.
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