Mentoring Research Excellence in Aging and Regenerative Medicine

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Aging is a process that is the major risk factor for chronic disease and degeneration. However, it is beginning to be appreciated that disease and degeneration impinge on biological aging, in something akin to a feedback loop, suggesting that a better knowledge of one contributes to an understanding of the other. This necessitates that development of therapeutic interventions must address the degenerative disorders of aging, while the search for broad interventions that target the biological aging process itself continues. This agenda calls for the creation and nurturing of an environment in which multidisciplinary research of sufficient breadth is focused on key elements of aging and regeneration. At the same time, it is necessary to populate this translational space with talented and successful investigators. The project goals are to: (1) Continue to expand the number of aging and regeneration research-oriented, funded investigators within the scientific community at Tulane through pilot projects, with emphasis on collaborative research, and to provide a mentoring program for these researchers and others that supports successful career development. (2) Maintain the state-of-the-art infrastructure to provide sustainable resources that continuously enhance the competitiveness of center faculty for national funding, by expanding and updating the services performed by our Genomics, Bioinformatics, and Spatial Multiomics Core. (3) Cement the position of the Tulane Center for Aging at the forefront of aging and regenerative medicine by growth of its thematic, multidisciplinary research foci to facilitate successful extramurally funded collaborations that will support and sustain the center. The COBRE project leaders have coalesced into four research foci, one of which is Musculoskeletal and Soft Tissue Adaptation and Homeostasis. It is this area that is targeted for this administrative supplement. Extrinsic and intrinsic damage to body organs is constantly a threat to homeostasis during aging. Bodies can repair such damage rather well if it is not too severe. In fact, there are a few examples of near perfect repair that we can call regeneration, such as the regeneration of the digit tip. However, if the damage is extensive or chronic, the result is pathological healing that leaves behind a fibrotic scar compromising organ function. Virtually all organs are capable of repair and renewal and are prone to this pathology to a lesser or greater extent. The premise is that there are similarities, at the molecular and cellular levels, in fibrosis in these various organ systems, in addition to the differences, that can illuminate the factors that contribute to regeneration rather than fibrosis. These factors may best be uncovered using a comparative approach in several organ systems. To best leverage this approach, a team of experts in repair, regeneration, and fibrosis, in several different organs will be assembled, starting with the amputated digit tip and the damaged lung, along with experts in bioinformatics to facilitate unraveling its complexity in these organ systems. Their singular goal is to elucidate fibrosis – repair gone wrong. Fibroproliferative disorders account for 45% of the deaths in the United States, thus this research has significant public health impact.