AGING AND THE HUMAN ANTIBODY RESPONSE TO C. DIFFICILE

一个研究计划将由申请人，洛林凯恩，医学博士，公共卫生硕士在老年学部在贝丝以色列女执事医疗中心（BIDMC）进行。 该奖项将提供五年的指导培训和研究，使她能够发展自己的潜力，成为一名独立的临床研究人员，专注于以患者为导向的研究。 Jeanne Y.博士北京老年医学中心老年学主任魏，哈佛医学院老龄部主任和北京老年医学中心胃肠病学部副医师Ciaran P. Kelly博士将担任导师。研究部分将集中在一个重要的医源性，医院条件，主要影响老年患者：艰难梭菌相关疾病（CDAD）。 由于这种疾病的常规抗生素治疗与高复发率和抗生素耐药性的出现相关，因此本项目的长期目标是开发免疫生物产品以预防或改善由C.并在“高危”老年人的干预研究中测试其疗效。 本项目的具体目标是：1）确定免疫保护的替代标志物，以防止严重的，长期的或复发的C。艰难梭菌性腹泻，用于未来的C。艰难梭菌主动或被动免疫试验; 2）探讨免疫应答与C。difficile、C.艰难和老化;以及3）确定CDAD的临床相关性，以便开发可用于识别可受益于免疫或其它预防策略的高危个体的临床预测规则。除了这个项目和与魏博士和凯利博士的预定会议外，该奖项还将包括正式的研究课程，包括1）研究伦理，2）临床流行病学，3）统计分析，4）临床试验，5）衰老研究和5）实验室技术。 哈佛老龄化部门和BIDMC老年学和胃肠病学部门的大量研究，教育和临床资源将致力于申请人，以确保成功实现本奖项的目标。

A research program will be undertaken by the applicant, Lorraine Kyne, MD, MPH in the Division of Gerontology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). The award will provide five years of mentored training and research enabling her to develop her potential to become an independent clinical investigator focusing on patient-oriented research. Dr Jeanne Y. Wei, Chief of Gerontology at BIDMC, Director of the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Ciaran P. Kelly, Associate Physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, BIDMC, will serve as mentors. The research component will focus on an important iatrogenic, nosocomial condition which affects predominantly older patients: Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD). As the conventional antibiotic therapy of this condition is associated with a high relapse rate and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, the long term goals of this project are to develop immunobiological products to prevent or ameliorate disease due to C. difficile and to test their efficacy in intervention studies in 'high risk' older persons. The specific aims of this project are; 1) to identify surrogate markers of immune protection against severe, prolonged or recurrent C. difficile diarrhea for use in future C. difficile active or passive immunization trials; 2) to explore the inter- relationship between the immune response to C. difficile, disease due to C. difficile and aging; and 3) to determine the clinical correlates of CDAD, in order to develop a clinical prediction rule which may be used to identify high risk individuals who may benefit from immunization or other preventative strategies. In addition to this project and scheduled meetings with Drs. Wei and Kelly, this award will include a formal research curriculum, including 1) Research ethics, 2) Clinical epidemiology, 3) Statistical analysis, 4) Clinical trials, 5) Aging research and 5) Laboratory techniques. The very substantial research, educational, and clinical resources of the Harvard Division on Aging and the BIDMC Gerontology and Gastroenterology Divisions will be committed to the applicant to ensure successful attainment of the goals of this award.