Project Summary: Leadership and Administrative Core (LAC) The theme of the UCSF OAIC is “Predictors, Outcomes, and Amelioration of Late-life Disability: A Focus on Vulnerable Populations.” We are dedicated to better understanding and addressing late-life disability in vulnerable populations – vulnerable due to either medical vulnerabilities (such as cancer with comorbid lung disease and cognitive impairment) or to social vulnerabilities (such as isolation or homelessness). During our first cycle, the UCSF OAIC leaders developed a dynamic and collaborative center that has made key contributions to science and investigator development in our thematic niche. In our second cycle, we will build on our work that is shifting paradigms in aging, and improving clinical care. We will facilitate enrollment and retention of vulnerable elders into research studies, break new ground in the innovative use of national data resources, promote aging sciences across a wide range of disciplines, and contribute to the national OAIC community. The LAC will be the glue that coordinates the OAIC cores and maintains collaboration. The LAC will focus on tangible metrics of research productivity: publications in high impact journals and new NIH funding. To achieve these goals, we will focus on nine specific aims. They allow the Center to excel in its mission of developing superb investigators and supporting the highest-quality science. Our aims also focus on building partnerships with other programs at UCSF such as our CTSI, RCMAR, and ADRC. The LAC has the following Specific Aims: 1. To provide coordination across OAIC cores, assuring that cores work together collaboratively. 2. To provide day-to-day management of the UCSF OAIC, including managing administrative tasks such as the annual progress report and communications with the OAIC coordinating center. 3. To manage fiscal matters, review use of Core resources, and make reallocation decisions. 4. To lead outreach efforts, linking the OAIC with other UCSF centers and the national OAIC network. 5. To assess scientific opportunities for new uses of Core resources, and to plan for such uses, with special consideration of opportunities for translation between clinical research, practice and policy. 6. To assess and plan areas of collaboration among UCSF OAIC Cores and with other OAICs. 7. To solicit, review, and fund proposals for REC awards and PESC projects in collaboration with those cores. 8. To organize activities of the UCSF OAIC advisory and review panels. 9. To monitor Core progress and implement necessary remediation. The LAC leader, Dr. Covinsky, and LAC co-leader, Dr. Steinman, will foster a mission driven culture of excellence, achievement, intellectual generosity, and collaboration, pushing the UCSF OAIC team to support research that translates into better care and for vulnerable older adults.
Project Summary: Overall OAIC The UCSF OAIC theme is “Predictors, Outcomes, and Amelioration of Late-life Disability: A Focus on Vulnerable Populations.” The UCSF OAIC has supported an interdisciplinary community of investigators whose discoveries have enhanced our understanding of disability, especially in those with medical and social vulnerabilities. Our OAIC conceptualizes vulnerability as a complex interplay of both medical vulnerability and social vulnerability, and we have demonstrated that medical and social vulnerabilities are inextricably linked. The OAIC has been a galvanizing force at UCSF, forging alliances with other UCSF centers. We have applied core geriatric concepts to vulnerable older adults in a wide range of disciplines such as oncology and surgery. Our work on the interaction of social and medical vulnerability has led to a better understanding of how to address the needs of older adults who have low literacy, are homeless, or are incarcerated. Our dedication to mentoring has led to many GEMSSTAR and Beeson Awards. During the next cycle we will build on our track record, supporting career scholars and pilot awardees who are engaged in innovative projects that focus on older persons’ complex medical and/or social vulnerabilities. We will continue to identify factors that increase the risk of developing disability and that adversely affect quality of life of disabled older adults, and we will develop strategies to improve these outcomes. Our two resource cores will catalyze a wide spectrum of clinical and outcomes research. Our Data and Analysis Core will facilitate the use of high quality data sources that are particularly useful for disability research in vulnerable older persons and will provide statistical consultation. Our Vulnerable Aging Recruitment and Retention Core will support new research among older populations that are traditionally difficult to enroll and retain in studies, building on the capacity we have developed to engage homebound, cognitively impaired, homeless, and low- literacy older adults as well as elders in nursing homes, safety net hospitals, and correctional facilities. The overriding goal of UCSF’s OAIC is to foster a mission-driven culture of excellence grounded in a commitment to improving quality of life for vulnerable older adults with or at risk for disability. We have 5 aims: 1. Catalyze research on disability in vulnerable older persons at UCSF by serving as a hub that brings together scholars and leverages resources. 2. Provide core access to data resources, statistical support, and expertise enrolling and retaining vulnerable older subjects in order to stimulate new research on disability. 3. Support pilot studies that accelerate science and lead to research funding in late life disability. 4. Identify future leaders of aging research and support them with career development funding and mentoring. 5. Develop a leadership and administrative structure that spurs interdisciplinary collaboration, making the OAIC greater than the sum of its parts.
Project Summary: Research Education Component (REC) The overall goal of the Research Education Component (REC) is to identify, support, and nurture talented junior investigators who will become national leaders in aging research, especially within our theme of late-life disability in vulnerable populations. This renewal application builds on the success of the UCSF REC over the past 4 years in identifying and fostering the development of an incredible talent pool of junior investigators across multiple specialties (e.g., Dermatology, Geriatrics, Hospital Medicine, Hepatology, General Internal Medicine, Neurology, Nursing, Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Social Science, Urology) towards independence in aging research. Our primary mechanisms for continuing our track record of success are through the REC Scholars and Advanced Scholars Programs. These programs target candidates of exceptional promise at crucial points in their career. The REC Scholars Program targets early career faculty and seeks to accelerate their path towards NIA K awards. They are provided generous levels of support designed to protect their time as they develop a portfolio of manuscripts and research that will make them competitive for K-awards. The REC Advanced Scholars Program targets current K award recipients and seeks to accelerate the path towards their first R01. They are provided support that funds additional work that will be essential to a successful R01 application, but cannot be done with the limited project resources of their K-award. All REC Scholars and Advanced Scholars also receive extensive mentoring support and participate in innovative educational activities designed to develop skills essential to success in aging research. REC curricular efforts develop core knowledge in aging topics, enhance manuscript and grant writing skills, leadership skills, facilitate interdisciplinary communication, and support a Translational Science Fulcrum Program that accelerates translation between basic and clinical aging research. REC leadership will also actively work with leaders of the Resource Cores to provide each scholar access to additional support and services, which have been central to the success of our scholars during our first cycle. The REC also sponsors a Diversity Supplement Program to increase the number of faculty from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds conducting aging research at UCSF and has a close partnership with the UCSF Resource Center for Minority Aging Research. We are proud of the paradigm-changing work of our scholars who have published in the highest impact journals, received prestigious grants, and become valued collaborators and partners in our mission to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable elders.
