Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center

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疗法，并培训新的研究人员进行衰老和残疾的研究，同时培养他们的领导素质。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，这反过来又使我们能够完成我们的使命。主题为“骨质疏松症和残疾的预防”，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、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。为实现这些目标，拟议的审查处包括以下综合核心，为调查人员提供支持。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、临床转化研究核心、新陈代谢和生物标志物核心、生物统计和数据管理核心以及招聘、坚持和保留核心。我们培训初级学者，并支持外部研究、研究开发项目和试验性/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，这些核心、项目和调查人员针对一个共同的研究主题，通过整个生物医学调查范围来探索。

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 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, allows us to accomplish our mission. The theme, "sarcopenia and prevention of disability", is 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 leads 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, 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 pre-clinical 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 includes the following integrated cores, which support investigators. Junior Scholars, infrastructure, and services: the Leadership and Administrative Core, the Research Career Development Core, the Pilot / Exploratory Studies Core, the Clinical Translational Research Core, the Metabolism and Biomarkers Core, the Biostatistics and Data Management Core, and the Recruitment, Adherence and Retention Core. We train Junior Scholars and support external studies, research development projects, and 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.