UTMB Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
Funded Grant
Overview
Affiliation
View All
Overview
description
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (CRRC2) The UTMB OAIC Clinical Research Resource Core (CRRC2) is the primary resource to support clinical research, including subject recruitment, tracking and retention activities, and investigators’ training. In the new cycle, the core will support research studies on the mechanisms underlying function loss and recovery; development and testing of novel treatments; trajectories of physical function and disability in community- dwelling and hospitalized older adults; and pragmatic, patient-centered studies on recovery from illness. All CRRC2 activities will support the broader OAIC theme: Translate pathways of function loss and gain into interventions to improve functional recovery in diverse geriatric populations. The Specific Aims of the CRRC2 are: 1. Support clinical research relevant to the OAIC theme. 2. Coordinate training in recruitment, retention, and study procedures. 3. Develop novel methods to improve clinical study recruitment, retention and diversity. The CRRC2 has supported over the current cycle translational research in healthy older adults and geriatric patients, including 31 OAIC projects and 43 external projects. Core expertise in muscle biology, metabolism, nutrition, exercise, and behavioral interventions has been instrumental in developing the infrastructure to support translation of basic discoveries in geriatric populations, developing the ACE Unit Functional Laboratory, and participating in large multisite clinical trials. Going forward the CRRC2 will continue to recruit, track and retain diverse older adults for supported projects, including OAIC Network multisite clinical trials; provide standardized health screenings, physical exams, functional, nutritional and body composition assessments, exercise testing and training, and muscle and adipose tissue biopsies; monitor compliance and safety; train investigators; support use of technology in clinical trials; improve methodologies to enhance retention and intervention fidelity; and develop best practices to recruit diverse Hispanic participants in clinical studies. The CRRC2 will continue to enhance the OAIC clinical research quality, efficiency, productivity, and provide developmental opportunities for scholars and other investigators.
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (LAC) The UTMB OAIC Leadership and Administrative Core (LAC) provides scientific leadership, administrative infrastructure, financial and regulatory oversight in support of the activities and growth of our center. The LAC employs an established shared leadership model that optimizes efficiency, productivity, team science, multidisciplinarity, and coherence with the theme: Translate pathways of function loss and gain into interventions to improve functional recovery in diverse geriatric populations. The LAC specific aims are: 1. Provide scientific leadership and direction toward the overall goals of the UTMB OAIC. 2. Manage the UTMB OAIC program in compliance with applicable policies. 3. Increase the UTMB OAIC impact locally and nationally. These aims will be accomplished by proactively stimulating innovative research, spearheading new collaborations, and attracting new investigators. LAC will coordinate and integrate core functions and scientific coherence, tracking productivity, and reallocating resources as appropriate. We will leverage other local programs and network resources to increase efficiency and promote innovation. LAC will also assure compliance with research policies, monitor patient safety, organize research and administrative meetings, review panels and advisory boards. It will communicate with the NIA, the OAIC Coordinating Center, the Resource Center Collaborative Network, the scientific community, and the community at large. LAC will also develop new collaborations on Hispanic aging with the Texas Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, promote the expansion of clinical trials in hospitalized geriatric patients in collaboration with the Health System and other OAICs, and increase the preclinical pipeline in collaboration with the UT System drug discovery network. The dynamic LAC leadership will foster the continuing growth, productivity, and excellence of the OAIC.
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (MBRC1) The UTMB OAIC Metabolism and Biology Resource Core (MBRC1) promotes and supports basic science and translational research relevant to the OAIC theme which is Translate pathways of functional loss and gain into interventions to optimize functional recovery in diverse geriatric populations. The MBRC1 has been critical to the success of the UTMB OAIC, having supported many key discoveries on the mechanisms of muscle aging and sarcopenia. In the current cycle, it has supported 21 NIH grants, 11 other external grants, and 12 OAIC projects. The MBRC1 specific aims are: 1. Provide analytical support and add value to OAIC research. 2. Develop new methods to study the mechanisms of functional loss and recovery. 3. Train early-stage investigators on the analytical and methodological aspects of basic science and translational research on functional loss, gain and recovery in older adults. MBRC1 supports basic and translational research on sarcopenia, physical dysfunction and recovery requiring metabolic phenotyping, molecular biology techniques, tracer methodologies, animal models and cell cultures. It provides essential tools to determine the dynamic changes that occur at the whole-body, tissue and cellular levels in older individuals; quantify the metabolic effects of age, disease, inactivity and anabolic interventions; and determine the basic mechanisms that underlie these changes. MBRC1 also promotes integration of molecular, cellular and tracer methodologies within individual experiments in animals and humans to discover the mechanisms that underlie specific pathophysiological responses in older adults. It has also evolved to support the next step in translation – large clinical trials – by developing a biobank and services for sample processing and shipping. Over the next cycle, MBRC1 will expand the molecular metabolism resources and support reverse translation by further developing and utilizing inducible muscle specific knockout mouse models, integrating the use of traceromic methods, developing novel therapeutics for sarcopenia, and providing access to institutional metabolomic and transcriptomic resources to OAIC investigators. It will also continue to provide resources for early-stage investigators and OAIC pilot studies, assisting in the generation and utilization of preliminary data for competitive grant applications.
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT (OVERALL) The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) has been funded since 2000. It is the home of a diverse multidisciplinary team of investigators with complementary research interests in aging. We have discovered mechanisms of sarcopenia in cells, animal models and humans; identified trajectories of functional loss and disability in diverse populations; developed and tested interventions to improve functional recovery and independence. We have trained 31 Scholars (45% women, 26% minority), and published more than 640 papers. In the next cycle, we will build on our established infrastructure and accomplishments to support innovative multidisciplinary research and train the next generation of leaders in gerontology and geriatrics. The UTMB OAIC’s guiding theme is “Translate Pathways of Function Loss and Gain into Interventions to Optimize Functional Recovery in Diverse Geriatric Populations”. Our program’s aims are: 1. Discover mechanisms and define trajectories of age-related functional loss and gain. 2. Develop and test innovative interventions to optimize functional recovery. 3. Translate interventions to the clinical setting in diverse populations. 4. Train the future leaders in gerontology and geriatric research. We will use an integrative approach to translate basic discoveries into interventions for functional recovery and improve the trajectories of functional loss and disability in older adults. By leveraging partnerships with other institutional programs, we will expand our research in the select areas of novel therapeutics, Hispanic aging, and recovery from neurologic diseases. We will pursue our aims by integrating the activities of our highly productive Resource Cores: Metabolism and Biology, Clinical Research, and Biostatistics and Data Management. The Leadership and Administrative Core will provide the scientific leadership and coordinate the resource cores’ activities with those of the Pilot/Exploratory Core and the Research Education Core to spark research innovation and develop the leaders of the future.
