Biology of Aging and Age-Related Diseases Training Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests continued support for a training program initiated in 1991 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW). Our faculty trainers, comprised of 20 investigators from 14 departments and a broad array of specialties, are committed to providing each pre-doctoral (n=4, with one slot to support an M.D./Ph.D. student) and postdoctoral (n=4) trainee with an outstanding training experience. Our goal is to identify, attract and select talented and focused individuals who, after their NIA-supported training, are well-positioned and highly motivated to explore topics germane to the basic biology of aging and age-related diseases. Madison provides outstanding resources to support this program, including 18,000 square feet of new space (half laboratory, half office and administrative) at the Veterans Administration Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), an animal facility co-funded by the UW and GRECC dedicated to the maintenance of aging laboratory rodents, the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, and UW's Biotechnology Center. This training program continues to evolve in favorable directions. In 1996, Richard Weindruch, Ph.D., became Program Director and initiated several changes in response to concerns identified by the reviewers of the previous competitive renewal. Examples include additions (and deletions) to the training faculty which have elevated the quality of the science and better targeted the research to topics germane to biological aging, increased efforts toward recruitment (including minorities), implementation of a formal trainee selection process, creation of a journal club, scheduling of regular sessions on responsible conduct of research, and establishment (in 1998) of a required course on "Cell and Molecular Biology of Aging." Also, beginning in 2001, all trainees must take a course on "Research Ethics." A new direction which has been well received involves inviting gerontologists from other universities to visit and spend several hours (lecture followed by informal exchange) with our trainees and faculty. We submit this proposal at the beginning of the fourth year of a five year project period to avoid a budgetary disruption in funding of the training program. We have attempted to document in a thorough and clear way what we view as a strengthened program supported by our faculty's expanding research support germane to the "Biology of Aging and Age-Related Diseases." Also, we continue to work with the UW and other sources to increase the participation of minority groups in our training program.