Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC)

描述（由申请人提供）：佛罗里达大学美国老年人独立中心（OAIC）的使命是评估老年人身体残疾的危险因素，开发和测试有效的预防和康复疗法，并培养新的研究人员在老龄化和残疾研究方面，同时培养他们的领导素质。我们的策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来研究衰老，这些研究集中在一个共同的研究主题上，反过来，这将使我们能够完成我们的使命。本次会议的主题是“肌肉减少症、残疾的预防和康复”，将采用跨学科的方法，涵盖整个生物医学研究领域，包括分子生物学、动物研究、临床研究、行为科学和流行病学。本研究主题解决了OAIC计划的总体目标，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)利用转化研究（在基础和临床学科之间）评估导致肌肉减少症、身体功能下降和残疾进展的多种因素，如生物、遗传、共病、社会心理和行为；(2)在临床和临床前研究中开发并可靠地测试针对肌肉减少症的干预措施，以预防；延缓或恢复与年龄相关的身体机能衰退和向残疾发展。为了实现这些目标，拟议的OAIC将包括以下综合核心，以支持研究人员，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，生物统计学和数据管理核心，招聘核心以及基因组学和生物标志物核心。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项试点研究、1项探索性研究和9项小型试点/探索性研究。拟议的OAIC的一个主要优势是跨学科核心、项目和研究人员的协调行动，这些核心、项目和研究人员致力于通过整个生物医学领域探索一个共同的研究主题

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.