The Clinical Research Core, a key component of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine OAIC, provides the infrastructure and the investigator resources that are vital to the successful conduct of clinical research. The WFUSM OAIC-supported randomized clinical trials and observational studies include independently funded studies, research development projects, and pilot studies. The Core will test innovative hypotheses on the etiology of physical disability and will evaluate novel interventions designed to prevent disability in older populations. In the first year of funding, the Core will support four randomized controlled trials, three research development projects, and four pilot studies. The Clinical Research Core will provide particular expertise in designing and conducting clinical research studies, most, but not all of which will be randomized controlled trials. In collaboration with other OAIC research Cores at our institution (the Body Composition Core, the Genomics and Biomarkers Core and the Pre-clinical Research Core), we will 1) assess potentially modifiable risk factors of physical function decline and disability in older adults and 2) evaluate the effects of novel interventions on these risk factors and on body composition, physical function and disability. We will focus especially on standardizing physical function and disability measures within these clinical studies. Interventions such as physical exercise and ACE inhibitor therapy, both of which are currently being evaluated in trials at our institution, would be supported through the OAlC Clinical Research Core. Continued funding for the Clinical Research Core will allow us to build upon our currently supported studies by including uniform measures of physical function, strength, biomechanics and disability, all of which would reinforce the common OAIC research theme, """"""""a muscular approach to disability and its prevention."""""""" The Core has experienced investigators and will provide the infrastructure to add these uniform measures, as well as to support the development of OAIC pilot projects and the evaluation of new assessment tools and intervention studies. The Core environment and investigators expertise will foster among junior investigators trained in the WFUSM OAIC the development of skills that will enable them to successfully translate basic findings into clinical research, and, conversely, clinical findings into basic research.
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