Caenorhabditis Testing Program Data Coordinating Center

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Caenorhabditis Intervention Testing Program Data Coordinating Center—Project Summary Health challenges linked to human aging take a tremendous toll on society. Physical and cognitive decline limit the quality of life for the elderly and their caregivers. Aging is the major risk factor for, and possible cause of, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disease. Without question, the promotion of healthy aging with extended resistance to decline and disease should be a major objective of current medical research. Fortunately, tremendous progress has been made in the biology of aging field and the science is poised to be translated into preclinical and clinical science. Simple animal models such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have been at the heart of this success. Many genes and chemical compound interventions that modulate aging processes are likely to act similarly in humans. The goal of the proposed work is to continue, and expand, efforts of a co-operative scientific group involving three closely interacting laboratories who coordinately test pharmacological interventions for their ability to extend healthy aging and promote longevity in nematodes. A specific emphasis of this integrated super-group is to test promising compound on a collection of natural variants of the Caenorhabditis genus, which together represent the extensive genetic heterogeneity in the human population. The idea is that treatments that confer positive outcomes across a diverse population will have an increased chance of being effective in humans. The Data Coordinating Center supports work at all three project sites by creating a centralized data repository (currently 400,000 longevity records), uniform analytical pipelines, and public-facing repositories and websites. The emphasis of this specific proposal is to (1) maintain and enhance a central data repository to support the work of all CITP labs, (2) generate standardized open-source analytical framework for all CITP data analysis, (3) develop comprehensive database and analytical framework for novel hallmarks of aging and healthspan, and (4) develop a public and private online portal of lifespan and healthspan data. Overall, we will participate in a unique team project that has the power to define pharmacological interventions that robustly promote strong healthspan across a varied population, with implications for development of therapies that promote healthy human aging.