USC-Buck Geroscience Training in the Biology of Aging

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Abstract This is a renewal application for the USC-Buck Geroscience Training Program in the Biology of Aging T32 Training Grant which was first funded as of May 1st, 2016. The training program is an unique cooperative venture of the University of Southern California's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology (USC) and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (Buck). In 2014, in a truly joint venture, we created the very first dedicated Biology of Aging Ph.D. program in the USA. Students take courses at both institutions, many in person but also in a fully interactive on-line format and undertake first-year lab. rotations at both campuses before selecting a mentor and lab. at USC or the Buck. As we come to the end of the fourth year of our T32 grant we are pleased to report that our young PhD program is comprised of a current PhD student body of 41 PhD candidates. Although our inaugural admission to the program was in 2014, we have already graduated 7 PhD students and expect another 6-7 to graduate with their doctoral degrees by the end of the current grant period – average time to degree completion is 5 years. Thirteen predoctoral trainees and six postdoctoral trainees have been supported by our T32 grant. The goals of our Biology of Aging program are as follows: 1) To train pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers who will become leaders in the biology of aging field. Our training encompasses biochemistry, molecular biology, molecular genetics, physiology, neurobiology, computational biology, immunology, and pathology; 2) To enable students and post-doctoral fellows to become experts in the theory and methods of one specific area of biological research, but also enable them to incorporate methods and approaches from other disciplines of cutting-edge areas of aging research; 3) To provide our students and post- doctoral fellows with training which incorporates familiarity with the theory, methods, and data of the multiple aging disciplines that are essential to dealing with national issues arising from the aging of the population (e.g. susceptibility to, or poor outcomes from, viral diseases such as COVID-19) as well as insuring individuals a long, healthy life: 4) To provide predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees with structured curriculum and research experiences that lead to mastery of the knowledge, methods, analytic approaches, and theory of the gerosciences; 5) To provide both predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees structured exposures that allow them to gain understanding of the knowledge, methods, and theory of other relevant gerontological disciplines (sociology, psychology, public policy, elder-law, elder-economics, etc.) through scheduled activities such as the weekly Multidisciplinary Research Colloquium in Aging, and courses, such as GERO 592 – “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Current Research in Gerontology.”; 6) To develop demonstrable research competence, emphasizing ethics, the responsible conduct of research, and methods for enhancing reproducibility through participation in research projects with mentors and development of independent research projects. Through these training goals, we expect our trainees to become leaders in the next generation of aging researchers.