Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center

佛罗里达大学美国老年人独立中心（OAIC）的使命是评估老年人身体残疾的风险因素，开发和测试有效的预防疗法，并在研究老龄化和残疾方面培训新的研究人员，同时培养他们的领导素质。我们的策略是吸引来自不同的行为、临床和基础科学学科的研究和研究人员来研究一个共同的研究主题，而这反过来又使我们能够完成我们的使命。主题为“肌肉减少症和残疾预防”，采用跨学科方法，涵盖生物医学研究的整个领域，包括分子生物学、动物研究、临床研究、行为科学和流行病学。本研究主题解决了OAIC计划的总体目标，即增加科学知识，从而找到更好的方法来维持或恢复老年人的独立性。我们的研究目标是：(1)利用转化研究（在基础和临床学科之间）评估导致肌肉减少症、身体功能下降和残疾进展的多种因素，如生物学、共病、社会心理和行为；(2)在临床和临床前研究中开发并可靠地测试针对肌肉减少症的干预措施，以预防；延缓或恢复与年龄相关的身体机能衰退和向残疾发展。为了实现这些目标，拟议的OAIC包括以下支持调查人员的集成核心。初级学者，基础设施和服务：领导和行政核心，研究职业发展核心，试点/探索性研究核心，临床转化研究核心，代谢和生物标志物核心，生物统计学和数据管理核心，以及招聘，坚持和保留核心。我们培训初级学者，并支持外部研究、研究开发项目和试点/探索性研究。拟议的OAIC的一个主要优势是跨学科核心、项目和研究人员的协调行动，通过整个生物医学研究领域探索一个共同的研究主题。

The mission of the University of Florida Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) is to assess the risk factors of physical disability in older adults, develop and test effective prevention therapies, and train new investigators in research on aging and disability, while developing their leadership qualities. Our strategy is to attract studies and investigators from diverse behavioral, clinical, and basic science disciplines towards research on aging that is focused on a common research theme, and this, in turn, allows us to accomplish our mission. The theme, "sarcopenia and prevention of disability", is pursued using an interdisciplinary approach that traverses the entire spectrum of biomedical investigation, including molecular biology, animal studies, clinical research, behavioral sciences, and epidemiology. This research theme addresses the general goal of the OAIC program, namely, to increase scientific knowledge that leads to better ways to maintain or restore independence of older persons. Our research objectives are to (1) assess, using translational research (between basic and clinical disciplines) multiple factors such as biological, co-morbid, psychosocial, and behavioral that contribute to sarcopenia, physical function decline, and progression to disability and (2) develop and reliably test in clinical and pre-clinical studies interventions that target sarcopenia, in order to prevent, delay or recover the age-related declines in physical function and the progression to disability. To address these objectives the proposed OAIC includes the following integrated cores, which support investigators. Junior Scholars, infrastructure, and services: the Leadership and Administrative Core, the Research Career Development Core, the Pilot / Exploratory Studies Core, the Clinical Translational Research Core, the Metabolism and Biomarkers Core, the Biostatistics and Data Management Core, and the Recruitment, Adherence and Retention Core. We train Junior Scholars and support external studies, research development projects, and pilot/exploratory studies. A major strength of the proposed OAIC is the concerted action of the interdisciplinary cores, projects and investigators that address one common research theme to be explored through the whole spectrum of biomedical investigation.