CORE--INVESTIGATOR DEVELOPMENT

Columbia University Health Sciences, New York NY

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The goal of Core III (Investigator Development) is to promote the development of investigators in minority aging, with a focus on research relevant to the Columbia Center for Active Life of Minority Elderly (CALME) theme of functional life expectancy. This goal will be addressed through pilot grant awards, ongoing mentoring of pilot investigators both during and after their pilot grants, promotion of collaborations between minority and non-minority investigators, and dissemination of information to the community of northern Manhattan, where much of the pilot research and all of the clinical and population-based research of mentors is conducted. During the first five years of the CALME, 20 pilot grant awards were made to 18 minority investigators. A substantial number of peer-reviewed publications and presentations resulted from these awards, and three pilot awardees now have their own federally funded grants. Mentoring was achieved both on all individual basis from project-specific senior faculty mentors and through the monthly CALME Data and Methods Core Seminars that pilot awardees attended, lnformation dissemination activities were conducted in collaboration with the Community Core. In this continuation application we propose six specific aims: (1) to implement a process to solicit and select pilot award applications; (2) to track the successes of pilot studies and awardees; (3) to implement information transfer and dissemination activities in collaboration with the Community Core; (4) to evaluate the effectiveness of these information transfer activities, also in collaboration with the Community Core: (5) to implement a process and curriculum for ongoing mentoring of pilot investigators; and (6) to evaluate the mentoring process. In Year 1, three pilot awards are proposed. (1) Emil Blanco will test the hypothesis that familial colorectal cancer has a higher prevalence than present clinical case definitions indicate, describe the prevalence in the predominantly minority population served by the general medicine clinic at our site, and collect preliminary data for a trial of intensive surveillance of the population at risk. (2) Lorna Dove will test the hypothesis that cryptogenic hepatitis C in older Hispanics is related to needle use by lay injectors ("injection treatments") and collect preliminary data for a full-scale case control study. (3) Jose Luchsinger will assess vitamin and anti-oxidant use in relation to dementia working in collaboration with the Cohnnbia University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. These projects will also assess impacts on functional status and on minority-non-minority disparities in disease prevalence and outcomes. The activities of Core III will be closely integrated with the other cores and the coordinating center.