Administrative/Program Enrichment Core

University Of Texas Hlth Science Center, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Administrative/Program Enrichment Core (PEC) is the organizational unit responsible for facilitating research in the basic biology of aging throughout the San Antonio Nathan Shock Center (SA NSC). The core’s goal is to provide continuous leadership and infrastructure that catalyzes scientific discoveries, promotes education and research career development, and partners with other geroscientists and the community at large. The PEC will foster and promote transformative research in geroscience using the SA NSC’s comprehensive and cohesive research platform that integrates and supports development regarding studies testing longevity (lifespan), healthy functional aging, pathology, and translational pharmacological approaches to improve aging outcomes. These studies will drive the discovery of novel geroscience mechanisms, develop novel strategies to promote healthy lifespan, and delineate the outcomes of novel and existing strategies targeting aging biology in mammals. Moreover, our Core will play a significant role in the development of leaders in geroscience to drive these research aims. The PEC will monitor, stimulate, sustain, evaluate, and report progress toward our goals through these Specific Aims: 1. To provide administrative, budgetary, and regulatory management support for the center overall. 2. To foster an environment that stimulates collaborative efforts and synergies among research cores and promotes education and mentorship of students, early-stage investigators, and established faculty from other fields of science. 3. To promote interactions in geroscience through the sharing of core services with investigators at other institutions and building of collaborations with other Nathan Shock Centers and the NSC3. 4. To provide biostatistical support to all core users and trainees, and data management and project tracking for each of the resource cores. 5. To conduct continuous internal evaluations and periodic external evaluations of the center. We introduce the following innovations to continue the development of our Center’s research program: 1) Improving the best practices of our Cores and Center by implementation of capability maturity monitoring based on our core service outcomes; 2) Providing novel statistical approaches and informatics to support our cores in the analyses of complex outcomes and phenotypes relevant to geroscience; 3) Enhancing fostering and career development in geroscience by supporting internships and mini-sabbaticals and mentoring teams; and 4) Facilitating interactions for trainees in geroscience. The PEC will drive progress by fostering a cooperative research environment focused on aging biology research and education, by supporting external collaborative efforts among the Nathan Shock Center network and by developing and expanding aging research to investigators internally and externally.