Peter A. Lichtenberg - US grants

DESCRIPTION: (from abstract) The WSU gerontology research training program in aging and urban health seeks funding to enhance its exceptional predoctoral program. The program faculty consist of 11 faculty across the WSU campus who have over 14 million dollars in current NIH funded research projects. In just 4 years, the program is credited with 4 students completing dissertations and 8 students completing master s thesis. In addition, students have produced 30 publications and 68 conference presentations, as well as been recognized with several national awards. The strengths of the program lie in the commitment of resources to training, the commitment of faculty to mentorship, and the rich urban environment in which students participate in all aspects of research. With the assistance of this 5 year grant, and matching funds from the IOG, 20 trainees will acquire expertise in gerontology, and participate in cutting edge research. These skills will allow WSU trainees to become prominent scholars in aging and urban health.

The Wayne State University training program in aging and urban health is seeking funds to continue its exceptional pre-doctoral research training program. The rationale for continuing this NIH supported training program is to further our success in training pre-doctoral students, across.avariety of disciplines, on the study of aging and urban health, with a focus on health disparities, functional independence, cognitive neuroscience as well as health and health care over another 5 year period. Our model of using mentoring teams and "pseudo joint appointments" has enabled our trainees to develop a strong professional "fit" with gerontology. This is illustrated by the fact that all 17 of our graduates from 2001-present hold positions in aging and health research at top universities or research programs (e.g. Duke University, University of Michigan, University of California-Davis, University of Louisville, North Carolina State University, City University of London, University of Manchester, University of Miami, Research Triangle Institute). The NIA's investments have led to exceptional success by trainees: 72 publications, 103 regional and national presentations, over 50 university and national awards. From 2001-2004-05, for each slot, the NIA awarded (20 over first four years), we have been able to award an additional 53 slots through university commitments and training faculty research grants. Indeed,one of the keys to an exceptional training setting is the presence of hihgly skilled funded researchers. Our 21 training faculty hold over $30,000,000 in grant funding, a doubling from our first application five years ago. Program Excellence is demonstrated by (1) Trainee achievement, (2) Faculty achievement, (3) Program achievement, and by (4) Demonstrating growth in its reputation and widespread impact across campus, in the community, and nationally. Lay description: Behavioral, social and cognitive neuroscience research holds significant promise for better understanding chronic disease, health promotion and health-related behaviors among older adults. This is particularly true for urban older adults, who suffer significantly increased morbidity and mortality due to health disparities across a spectrum of diseases and conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and a variety of physical and cognitive disabilities. Our training program will prepare researchers to be able to design and apply research findings to this population.

Community Networks; Michigan; programs; Research

Situated in the heart of Detroit, the Wayne State University Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) is focused on understanding how exposures to stressors that are prevalent in the urban industrialized environment, both chemical and non-chemical, impact human health. Special emphasis is placed on life windows of heightened susceptibility to environmental exposure and vulnerable persons at risk for environmental disease (e.g., children and adults of low socio-economic status, older adults, immigrants, refugees, and first responders). The hypothesis of the CURES Center is that diseases that compromise the quality of life in an industrialized urban environment, such as Detroit, occur as a consequence of dynamic interactions among an individual's genetic and epigenetic make-up, nutritional status, and environmental stressors, which include chronic low-level toxicant exposures as well as psychosocial and physical stressors, that re-program key cellular regulatory networks to favor pathogenesis. Four disease-oriented research interest groups serve as interdisciplinary hubs for population and basic scientists and community members interested in the role of environmental exposure in (1) immune disorders, (2) metabolic disease, (3) cancer, and (4) mental health disturbances. The Transdisciplinary/Translational Integration team (TRANSIT) works with community advisors to apply an integrated transdisciplinary approach to solving environmental health problems. The Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core guides Center researchers transitioning toward translational research studies and provides stem cell and human biospecimen services. The Exposure Signatures Facility Core enables Center members to apply integrated, state-of-the-art genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, and bioinformatic strategies to environmental health science research. The Community Outreach and Engagement Core provides for bi-directional exchange between the urban community at risk for environmental illness and Center members. CURES also sponsors programs focused on career and new project development. The CURES Center is a dynamic transdisciplinary research team that is dedicated to environmental disease prevention and creating a cleaner and healthier living and working environment in the city of Detroit.

The mission of the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES) is to enhance the well- being of residents affected by chemical and nonchemical stressors in the Detroit metropolitan area. CURES has developed a highly effective Community Outreach and Engagement Core (COEC). The COEC has established several practices, including 1) creating and operating a Community Advisory Board (CAB), in which leadership of the CAB is shared between the COEC Co-Leaders and CAB member co-chairs; 2) providing forums that enhance bi-directional communication between CURES researchers and community members; 3) initializing advocacy dialogue with community members and, through integration with the Wayne State University Environmental Law Clinic, preparing for more intensive advocacy training; 4) integrating COEC activities with all of the CURES cores; and 5) using our website, YouTube video production, and newsletter to broaden the reach of CURES activities. The COEC is instrumental in achieving CURES short term goals, including strengthening existing partnerships and continuing to develop new partnerships between CURES and the Detroit community and, in collaboration with partners, identifying the chief environmental health threats to Detroit's vulnerable populations. The COEC is also instrumental in achieving the long-term goals of CURES including enhancing our community partners' efforts to increase community awareness and facilitate programs for a healthier community and developing appropriate strategies, based on CURES research, to inform policy so as to mitigate the risks associated with urban environmental exposures. To meet the short and long term goals of CURES under this project, the COEC will work under four Specific Aims: 1) Enhance the environmental health knowledge of our CAB of professionals and lay persons dedicated to improving the health of our urban population; 2) Provide at least 130 educational forums and spin-off ?grassroots? sessions highlighting the main research themes of CURES investigators that intersect with the main interests of the community; 3) Enhance community participation in research; and 4) To eliminate the sources of health disparities, provide advocacy training to empower CAB members and Detroit residents to influence policymakers.

Despite the risks of decline in financial management (FM), financial decision making (FDM) and vulnerability to financial exploitation (FE), many memory impaired older adults continue to manage their own and their family's finances. Financial management is defined here as planning, organizing and controlling one's own personal finance activities. Financial decision making is defined as the use of personal finances for purchases, investments, savings or gifts. Financial exploitation is defined as misuse of another's money through fraud or theft. Not only do individuals with memory impairment continue to manage their own money, but they also experience significant wealth loss without realizing it. In addition, those older adults in the earliest phases of memory decline often experience declines in financial decision making (FDM) resulting in significantly higher financial exploitation (FE) victimization. Our goal is to sample those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Perceived Cognitive Impairment (PCI), create a new ?real world? FM test from the older individual's bank records, and examine the older adult's wealth loss, FDM and vulnerability to FE. We propose to engage 200 research participants in our study by sampling from our NIA P30 Alzheimer's and RCMAR Centers so as to over-sample Urban African Americans. Participants will be interviewed across 3-steps: (a) insuring they meet inclusion criteria, (b) sharing electronic bank statements, and (c) participating in our interview and evaluation once we have analyzed the bank statements (we are able to perform this data collection by phone or videoconferencing if necessary due to Covid-19). This approach will enable us to gain an understanding of how those with early memory loss perceive their finances, what early wealth loss warning signs can be identified, and what contextual and intellectual measures are related to wealth loss and financial mismanagement. By accomplishing our aims, we will provide important new methods and knowledge about the intersection of FM, FDM, wealth loss and vulnerability to FE. This knowledge will be fundamental to a R01 study to examine wealth changes and FE over time and to develop intervention strategies based on Motivational Interviewing.