Overview
Key Personnel
The Leadership Administrative Core convened the Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) continues to propel and review overall scientific goals and benchmarks of all cores, and of the training and faculty development goals from the RCDC and Pilot cores, as well as ongoing Core progress and accomplishments, and of the supported faculty.
Recent accomplishments include: During 2010-2011, our leadership and that of the University of Maryland OAIC have worked together on initiatives by which we might leverage our complementary strengths and foci to enrich the research environment for scholars associated with our OAICs, particularly our junior colleagues. These discussions have led to individual networking connections, joint participation in the annual JHU Research on Aging Showcase poster competition for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty, and two presented collaboratively by our Biostatistics Cores. The first symposium on clinical and comparative effectiveness research was held on May 24, 2010 at University of Maryland-Baltimore, and the second symposium on longitudinal data analysis was held on December 6, 2010 at Johns Hopkins Medical Campus. Our JHU OAIC collaboration-building project, known as the , continues to hold ongoing monthly research-in-progress sessions that allow for OAIC-supported investigator interaction and discourse, along with progress updates and access to mentors and methodological experts. The program’s research-in-progress centerpiece is bolstered by an online collaboration tool, an ongoingseminar series, grant review sessions, and research facilitation by the center administrator on this effort. The main goal of the Pepper Scholars Program is to positively affect collaborative behaviors and investigator productivity through interactive sessions and other mechanisms of interaction and support. This program was developed during fall 2009 by Drs. Bandeen-Roche, Gerstenblith and Walston, and the center administrator, Brian Buta; the first session was held in February 2010, and sessions have continued monthly since that time. More information is available on the program website, including a full list of presentations. In September 2010, a Diversity Supplement was awarded to Ms. Tyesha Burks (3P30AG021334-08S1). Mentors: Ronald Cohn, MD, Jeremy Walston, MD.
Background and Overview: Ms. Burks’s research and career development plan includes laboratory-based experience and participation in a range of didactic teaching and review sessions that are an integral part of the Johns Hopkins OAIC. As a pre-doctoral student developing her thesis in molecular biology, she has performed preliminary studies on skeletal muscle using two experimental approaches in aging animals. Given the importance of skeletal muscle decline to the syndrome of frailty, the experiments as described below are well suited to the Hopkins OAIC. Ms. Burks continues a line of investigation that was supported in 2009-2010 by a peer-reviewed, competitive OAIC pilot award given to Dr. Cohn. The basis of this study include the documentation that there is an age-related increase in TGF-beta signaling and that this increase affects the ability of aged satellite cells to activate upon injury (Carlson et al., 2008) and the work in other mouse models of myopathic states that showed Losartan can reduce the amount of TGF-beta signaling and improve skeletal muscle regeneration (Cohn et al., 2007) Ms. Burks continues this line of investigation as part of her training and evaluate the effect of a reduction of TGF-beta signaling in muscle regeneration during aging. These laboratory-based studies are highly relevant to frailty research, and have outstanding translational potential. As part of the original OAIC pilot award, Ms. Burks conducted experiments in which aging mice were treated with either placebo, Losartan (an angiotensin II type I receptor blocking agent), or a TGF-beta neutralizing antibody and then injected with a muscle-damaging agent, cardiotoxin. Preliminary histological results show a striking difference between treatment groups with recovery of regenerative capacity of muscle tissue after injury in the Losartan-treated group. Building on these findings, Ms. Burks has hypothesized that Losartan markedly improves skeletal muscle healing after injury. She has further hypothesized that Losartan will slow the development of aging-related muscle decline (sarcopenia). | 
