Claude D Pepper Older Americans Independence Center

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mission of the University of Maryland OAIC renewal is to conduct exercise and motor learning based rehabilitation research to optimize the recovery of older adults who have suffered a stroke, hip fracture or other chronic debilitating disease, and translate these findings into effective community-based rehabilitation programs. This will be accomplished through specific aims to: 1) conduct basic and clinical research examining the mechanisms underlying functional disabilities associated with chronic diseases of aging to characterize the functional impairments that define the disability phenotype across domains of neuromotor, muscular, metabolic, cardiovascular and psychosocial function; 2) apply these scientific findings to design novel exercise and motor learning-based rehabilitation strategies; 3) determine the mechanisms by which these rehabilitation interventions improve functional and clinical outcomes in older people with functional impairments; 4) translate efficacious rehabilitation strategies into community-based clinical studies; 5) support Pilot Exploratory Core (P/EC) Projects that study the mechanisms underlying the disability phenotype and functional and clinical responses to rehabilitation; and 6) foster the career development of junior faculty awardees (JFA's) into independent investigators and academic leaders in aging research. Our impetus to study rehabilitation in disability and aging is its critical importance for the health and quality of lifestyle older people living with chronic disability, and the dearth of mechanistic and translational research in this area of investigation. The UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND-OAIC has an accomplished leadership team with expertise in aging research, administration and monitoring large programs, and assembling and motivating a multidisciplinary team of investigators. There is a Research Career Development Core (RCDC) that provides a mentor-based training program to promote the career development of JFA's, a P/EC with 5 studies congruent with OAIC goals, and 5 RCs in 1) Clinical and Translational Research Methods, 2) Neuromotor Function, 3) Applied Clinical Physiology, 4) Muscle Biology and Molecular Mechanisms of Inflammation, and 5) Biostatistics and Informatics. We are optimistic that UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND-OAIC's research will change clinical practice by developing innovative, evidence-based exercise and motor learning rehabilitation programs that improve the functional and clinical outcomes of older people with disabilities to promote their recovery and independent living.