Research Development Core

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RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORE PROJECT SUMMARY Understanding the complexity of the aging process and its profound effects across all levels of biological organization will require a strong, interdisciplinary, and diverse supply of talented scientists. The overall goal of The Jackson Laboratory Nathan Shock Center (JAX NSC) Research Development Core is to provide support for career development of junior faculty entering the field of basic aging biology or other investigators who wish to change career direction towards basic aging research. In 2017, the pilot award format was changed from providing funds awarded to two investigators per year ($50,000 each) to an innovative in-kind program where experiments were streamlined for awardees enabling more experiments to be performed for a larger number of investigators within the same budget. During the current funding period, the JAX NSC Research Development Core competitively awarded funding and resources to aging projects across biological systems that resulted in new discoveries, research publications and sources of funding, and helped junior awardees to establish their own independent careers in aging research. Moving forward, these successes will be expanded by providing targeted funding to exciting projects proposed by investigators new to aging research, and by offering a variety of research and intellectual resources to support awardees and other aging investigators in their work. The outstanding institutional resources available at JAX, a premier institution for mouse genetics and systems biology research, will be leveraged to sustain and grow this foundation of researchers at JAX and within the aging community. The Specific Aims are: Aim 1. Fund projects for new investigators in aging research using a competitive pilot award program. Promising investigators new to aging research will be funded through a competitive process so they can generate the data and gain the expertise necessary to support competitive funding applications and a transition to a career in aging biology. Aim 2. Provide resources to support pilot awardees and investigators new to aging research. Access to resources (e.g., aging mice, data, tissues, phenotype platforms, expertise) will be provided to support pilot awardees and other investigators new to aging research. The aging mouse cohorts and phenotyping technologies supported by the JAX NSC present a valuable opportunity for investigators to access material and collect data that might otherwise be prohibitively expensive or difficult to obtain. Aim 3. Provide mentorship and career development opportunities in aging research. Investigators new to aging research will be provided with mentorship by JAX NSC researchers and collaborators. They will also be given opportunities for career development in the aging field via support with the grant writing process, opportunities to participate in aging meetings, and introductions to potential collaborations within the broader aging community. The impact of the Research Development Core is that the pool of investigators devoted to the study of the basic biology of aging will be expanded.