Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC)

描述(申请人提供)：佛罗里达大学老年美国人独立中心(OAIC)的使命是评估老年人身体残疾的风险因素，开发和测试有效的预防和康复疗法，并培训新的研究人员在衰老和残疾的研究，同时发展他们的领导素质。我们的战略是吸引来自不同行为、临床和基础科学学科的研究和研究人员转向关注共同研究主题的衰老研究，这反过来将使我们能够完成我们的使命。主题为“骨质疏松症，残疾的预防和康复”，将采用跨学科的方法，横跨生物医学研究的整个范围，包括分子生物学、动物研究、临床研究、行为科学和流行病学。这一研究主题涉及OAIC方案的总体目标，即增加科学知识，从而找到更好的方法来维持或恢复老年人的独立性。我们的研究目标是(1)利用基础学科和临床学科之间的转化研究，评估导致骨质疏松症、身体功能下降和进展为残疾的多种因素，如生物学、遗传学、并发性疾病、心理社会和行为因素，以及(2)开发并可靠地在临床和临床前研究中测试针对骨质疏松症的干预措施，以预防、延缓或恢复与年龄相关的身体功能下降和残疾进展。为了实现这些目标，拟议的OAIC将包括以下综合核心，这些核心将支持研究人员、初级学者、基础设施和服务：领导和行政核心、研究职业发展核心、试点/探索性研究核心、临床研究核心、临床前研究核心、生物统计和数据管理核心、招聘核心以及基因组学和生物标记物核心。在第一年，我们将培训9名初级学者，并支持7项外部研究、3项研究发展项目、2项试验性研究、1项探索性研究和9项小型试验性/探索性研究。拟议的OAIC的一个主要优势是跨学科核心、项目和调查人员的协调行动，以解决将通过整个生物医学范围探索的一个共同研究主题 调查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The mission of the University of Florida Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) is to assess the risk factors of physical disability in older adults, develop and test effective prevention and rehabilitation therapies, and train new investigators in research on aging and disability, while developing their leadership qualities. Our strategy is to attract studies and investigators from diverse behavioral, clinical, and basic science disciplines towards research on aging that is focused on a common research theme, and this, in turn, will allow us to accomplish our mission. The theme, "sarcopenia, prevention and rehabilitation of disability", will be pursued using an interdisciplinary approach that traverses the entire spectrum of biomedical investigation, including molecular biology, animal studies, clinical research, behavioral sciences, and epidemiology. This research theme addresses the general goal of the OAIC program, namely, to increase scientific knowledge that will lead to better ways to maintain or restore independence of older persons. Our research objectives are to (1) assess, using translational research (between basic and clinical disciplines) multiple factors such as biological, genetic, co-morbid, psychosocial, and behavioral that contribute to sarcopenia, physical function decline, and progression to disability and (2) develop and reliably test in clinical and preclinical studies interventions that target sarcopenia, in order to prevent, delay or recover the age-related declines in physical function and the progression to disability. To address these objectives the proposed OAIC will include the following integrated cores, which will support investigators, Junior Scholars, infrastructure, and services: the Leadership and Administrative Core, the Research Career Development Core, the Pilot / Exploratory Studies Core, the Clinical Research Core, the Preclinical Research Core, the Biostatistics and Data Management Core, the Recruitment Core, and the Genomics and Biomarkers Core. During the first year we will train nine Junior Scholars and support seven external studies, three research development projects, two pilot studies, one exploratory study and nine small pilot/exploratory studies. A major strength of the proposed OAIC is the concerted action of the interdisciplinary cores, projects and investigators that address one common research theme to be explored through the whole spectrum of biomedical investigation.