Paola S. Timiras - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): The aims of this proposal are to strengthen/promote research and education/training in gerontology among the faculty and students in the biological and health sciences on the University of California at Berkeley campus (UCB). This present initiative, designed to create a comprehensive and better integrated training in biogerontology, is particularly opportune at the present time when scientists at UCB, in association with those at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are planning a synergistic and cross-fertilizing of the biological and health sciences. Built on the existing UCB/LBNL strengths, the planned training will integrate molecular, cellular and organismic biology with physico-chemical/engineering and behavioral/socio-economic sciences under the overall theme of "Environmental and Genetic Influences in Aging." With this multidisciplinary target, the present goal is to expand and coordinate current activities as well as to create new opportunities in gerontological research and training. UCB brings to the study of aging an approach that most medical schools cannot marshal as their major focus is on specific diseases and their treatments. Although aging makes us vulnerable to disease and injury, research into the processes responsible for aging itself remains neglected. By integrating the efforts of cell and molecular biologists, structural and computational biologists, geneticists, physiologists, nutritionists and public health professionals, who are UCB/LBNL intellectual assets and resources, this program will foster multidisciplinary research and training in aging. Early entry in such a program will provide the next generation of scientists with a solid biologic basis from which to branch towards further gerontology/geriatrics specialization. Given the eager intellect of the UCB student body, this program intends to stimulate career choices in gerontology at an earlier (undergraduate) training stage and continue to offer opportunities for further training at graduate and postdoctoral levels. I propose; 1) to coordinate a strong undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral training program by stimulating faculty, students and administration awareness/ commitment to biogerontology, 2) to recruit UCB students in the program at an early stage of their academic program and motivate them to persist in their chosen career, and 3) to enlist the academic and administrative support necessary for the program to flourish and progress.