 OAIC Retreat The central concern, even raison d’etre, of geriatric medicine is the care of frail older adults and the prevention of adverse outcomes for which they are at risk. This group is thought, clinically, to be the highest risk subset of older adults, vulnerable to many stressors and highly prone to disability, dependency, and mortality. The new consensus as to the measurement and nature of frailty suggests that it is a biologic syndrome of aging involving dysregulation of multiple physiologic systems that, in the aggregate, leaves the individual highly vulnerable to stressors. Frailty has early stages that may be prevented or remediable, and the dysregulations and vulnerabilities of frailty need to be considered in diagnostic and treatment plans. The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Older Americans Independence Center, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is dedicated to developing the next generation of research to determine the causes and treatments for frailty in older adults. This Center provides the following resources to investigators throughout the Medical Institutions: Intellectual and infrastructure resources to support scientific discoveries on frailty in older adults among scientists throughout the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. These include:
Key infrastructure and access to emerging technologies essential to developing leading-edge discoveries on the ultimate causes of frailty and treatments for this multi-system disorder. This Center supports two outstanding research cores, Genetics, Genomics and Molecular Core. These are available to support discovery at the molecular level, at the level of the whole person, and in complex analytic approaches relating the two. Development of new methodologies in biostatistics, genetics and genetic epidemiology that are essential to the study of the complex syndrome of frailty.
The OAIC also provided support for:
Pilot studies on frailty in older adults that can lay the basis, over the long run, for development of novel interventions to diagnose, prevent or treat frailty, or minimize adverse outcomes related to the presence of frailty. Protected time for junior researchers to develop a research career focused on the science of frailty in aging.
OAIC support provides:
Protected time and mentorship for junior faculty whose career commitment is to this area, as well as training and educational activities and access to infrastructure and core resources above. This support is offered, through competitive application to junior faculty throughout the Medical Institutions. The emphasis for training is on ensuring development of requisite skills within a supportive environment, with a focus on abilities to translate between basic and clinical research, and into improved care of patients or populations.
Access to the resources described above is based on a formal application process and awards of pilot or junior faculty funding or use of core infrastructures by the OAIC Leadership Core. The home base for the Johns Hopkins Older Americans Independence Center is in the Johns Hopkins Center on Aging and Health, a Center of Excellence for Aging Research jointly sponsored by the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing. The Center on Aging and Health is located at 2024 E. Monument Street, Suite 2-700. For more information, contact individuals listed below (see Leadership Council). For additional information on the Johns Hopkins Older Americans Independence Center, please contact: Principal Investigator: Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, lfried@jhmi.edu;
Pilot Studies Core: Peter Rabins, MD, Director
Research Career Development Core: Gary Gerstenblith, MD, Director
Genetics Core: Aravinda Chakravarti, PhD, Director; Jeremy Walston, MD and Dani Fallin, PhD, CoDirectors
Biostatistics Core: Karen Bandeen-Roche, PhD, Director and Qian-Li Xue, PhD, CoDirector
Administrator: Brian Buta, bbuta1@jhmi.edu |
