The investigators hypothesize that centenarians, by virtue of their rarity and their ability to live the vast majority of their lives in excellent health, are a valuable cohort for the study of environmental and genetic factors which attenuate the rate of aging and which facilitate a delay in onset or even escape from diseases normally associated with aging. Evidence is also rapidly accumulating supporting the familiality of extreme longevity (shared genes and environmental factors). However, few centenarian studies have been performed and their design and methods vary to the degree that correlations are impossible. Furthermore, valuable opportunities for the collection, storage and analyses of genetic material have been missed. Drawing upon the experience of two well-established population-based centenarian studies, the aims of this R21 planning grant are as follow: (I) to establish a network of epidemiologists, clinicians, analysts and geneticists at five coordinated study sites, which will be called the """"""""Centenarian Studies Network""""""""; (II) to design and produce a program project application which links five centenarian studies; in addition to having common protocols and standardized instruments and procedures, the Network will have central sites for coordination, data management and analyses, genotyping, establishment of cell lines and storage of genetic material; and (III) to produce preliminary data in support of the program project application. The proposed five study centers of the Network, which will ensure the creation of phenotypic and genetic data and material """"""""banks"""""""" for approximately one thousand centenarians, are as follow: (1) the Ashkenazi Jews study (n=200) in New York and Israel representing a well-established founder population; (2) the Japanese Americans (n=300) in the Honolulu Asia Aging study which have been longitudinally studied for the past thirty years; Japanese Americans have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic group in the U.S., and this site brings significant epidemiological and data management experience and expertise to the proposed collaborative effort; (3) the centenarians of Nova Scotia (n=200) which appear to have twice the prevalence rate of other industrialized areas; (4) 4) the Sardinian Centenarian Study (n=200), and (5) the New England Centenarian studies (n=100) which are well-established and bring to the collaborative effort a wealth of experience in the conduct of population-based phenotypic studies of centenarians. A Genetics Epidemiology Committee, co-directed by experts in the genetics of aging, Drs. Jan Vijg and Claudio Franceschi, and which also includes geneticists from the study sites (Louis Kunkel from Harvard Medical School and Leonid Kruglyak from the Whitehead Institute) will guide the genotyping and genetic material banking effort.
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