Advancing Native American Diversity in Aging Research through Undergraduate Education (Native American ADAR)

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PROJECT SUMMARY This application, responsive to PAR-17-290, seeks R25 funding for “Advancing Native American Diversity in Aging Research through Undergraduate Education.” By offering annual courses and mentored research—along with online virtual education and mentoring during this COVID-19 pandemic—we recruit students from Native American backgrounds, both urban and non-urban, to encourage them to pursue careers investigating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and aging mechanisms, and help to launch their scientific careers. The ADRD and aging fields continue to grow swiftly, as does the elderly population, yet there are too few laboratories led by under-represented minority (URM) scientists, let alone Native American PIs, and too few new URM trainees. This R25 is directed by Gerald Schatten, PhD (Pitt), and Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD (Minnesota), who join David Burgess, PhD (Cherokee, Boston College); Melissa Wells, PhD (Bois Forte & Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe, Johns Hopkins - Duluth); Paul Robbins, PhD (Minnesota); and Calvin Simerly, PhD (Pitt) as the Executive Committee. The course is held at Minnesota’s Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism, directed by Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD, and Paul Robbins, PhD. Daily lectures, active learning, and extended discussions on emerging concepts, followed by lab and group exercises and informal seminars are held over a week (August 15-21, 2021). Both hands-on and online training for 16 participants on recent discoveries regarding ADRD’s root causes and treatments is presented, with special attention devoted to Native Americans; the biology of aging is also considered. Frequent interactions are maintained with each trainee afterwards, to evaluate the course and provide ongoing mentoring. Conducted with sensitivity to tribal histories, five specific aims are proposed: I. Provide conceptual education and research training in ADRD and the Biology of Aging, with relevance for Native American trainees; II. Support mentored pilot research, especially involving challenges in health disparities and diversity related to Native Americans; III. Encourage trainees’ and alumni’s longer-term career planning through personal coaching, mentoring sessions, and peer-to-peer advice; IV. Discuss NIH regulatory requirements within the context of Tribal Sovereignty; and V. Evaluate, improve, and monitor the Native American ADAR’s strengths and avoid weaknesses with unbiased, quantitative, independent mechanisms which track trainees’ and alumni’s achievements to ensure that the program is a wise, cost-effective investment. In so doing, we will enhance and expand the research careers of promising trainees, especially Native Americans, to help ensure full diversity in the NIA and NIH.