Pilot/Exploratory Studies Core (PESC)

The overall goals of this Core are to support cutting edge pilot and exploratory studies that will advance the development of effective prevention and/or therapies for frailty. This Pilot and Exploratory Studies (P/ES) Core accomplishes funds, pilot studies of novel, hypothesis-driven research that a) establishes potential mechanisms, etiologies, screening approaches or evaluates potential therapies to prevent or ameliorate the syndrome of frailty, and b) establishes preliminary data in these areas that will lead to substantive, long-term external funding that can bring this research to completion. This core provides mentorship as appropriate as well as intellectual support towards translation of pilot research into interventions and applications. In particular, this core seeks to guide the translation of pilot work into a deeper understanding of the basic biology of frailty (top down) and into interventions that will prevent or treat frailty (bottom up) by discussing the potential translation of pilot projects to future studies during the development, course and completion of the project, and in oAIC seminars. Foster communication and collaboration between awardees and participants in other OAIC cores to further encourage translation.

Core Leader, Peter V. Rabins, MD
Peter Rabins is professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine and in the departments of Mental Health and Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also a member of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Dr. Rabins has focused his career on research defining the psychiatric complications of structural brain disease (specifically Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and, more recently, Frontal-temporal dementia), developed and studied the efficacy of treatment models for the persistently mentally ill elderly (PATCH program), examined neuroimaging correlates of late-life psychiatric disorder (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression) and directed a clinical service with outpatient, inpatient, partial day hospital, mobile outreach and long-term care facility consultation components. He is also associate chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Psychiatry, providing career guidance to junior faculty. His long-term research interests are in the interface between illness characterized as psychiatric and neurological, and on quality of life measurement in dementia and end-of-life care in dementia.   

Supported Pilot Studies: