GEROSCIENCE TRAINING PROGRAM IN OKLAHOMA

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ABSTRACT The etiology of aging and age-related disease is poorly understood. Over the past 3 decades, there have been impressive advances in our understanding of the critical role of aging in the development of many diseases that limit quality of life. Aging and diseases associated with age clearly result in dependence and a severe reduction in health-span; however, without a clear understanding of the interactions between aging and disease, effective therapies cannot be developed. Our training program in GeroScience was initiated in 2017 as a new approach to training the next generation of researchers to address the complex causes of aging and their interactions with age-related disease. We originally requested support for 3 pre-doctoral and 4 post-doctoral fellows for 16 faculty. Over the last 4 years, the program has leveraged this support to train a total of 8 pre- doctoral trainees and 9 post-doctoral trainees. The total number of trainees during this initial funding period will continue to expand in the -05 year of the program. It is particularly important to note that as our trainees are accepted to the T32 program, they undergo a rigorous training plan and are required to write grant applications to support their proposed research. Importantly, trainees that rotate off our T32 due to the funding of their Federal or Association sponsored awards continue to participate in, and benefit from, the overall training program that we have established. Similarly, our mentors are recertified each year and we have developed a program to train young mentors. Predoctoral Students: Of the 8 pre-doctoral students that have entered our program, seven (7) are on-track or have completed their PhD. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the pre-doctoral students (6) have written grant applications and, of those submitting applications, 100% have been funded. Importantly, these are primarily F31, R36, and AHA grants. These trainees have produced 4.12 publications to date. Post-Doctoral Fellows: Of the nine (9) post-doctoral candidates, seven (7) fellows have submitted grants thus far and, of these, 57% have received funding. The trainees average 8.91 publications to date. The vast majority of our students have won local and national awards for their presentations. Those that have graduated have found employment in both academic and pharmaceutical environments. Based on our level of success, current census and plans for continued expansion of our program, we have increased our mentoring faculty to 21 and are requesting 4 graduate and 4 post-doctoral trainee positions to continue our training in GeroScience.