Training in the Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

With the “graying of America” we are faced with the need to address the ever-increasing number of individuals in our society who have age-associated nervous system diseases and conditions. By the year 2050, there will be up to 16 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and an even larger number with additional nervous system-related diseases attributed to aging. To address this problem, we need multidisciplinary approaches to facilitate the discovery of the mechanisms, treatments and prevention of these diseases. Active, integrated research-based training of pre-doctoral students is a key to supplying the research personnel needed to address these biomedical health care issues. The present application is a competing renewal of a very successful interdisciplinary program of pre-doctoral training in the neurobiology of aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. This funding cycle we supported 31 full fellows, of whom 12 completed their training and their Ph.D. The trainees were very productive and published 63 peer-reviewed papers to date (with almost another full year remaining in this funding cycle of our T32). Importantly, we maintained our retention/graduation rate at 100%. The continuation of our strong and successful predoctoral training program is proposed, as our three departments and our Institute for Translational Research have grown and matured through the addition of faculty and continued funding especially in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. Such growth has facilitated more basic, translational and clinical research into the causes, treatment and prevention of brain aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. Collectively, these new initiatives create a stimulating environment for the training of predoctoral students. Unique and innovative features of the training program for the next period of funding include: (1) Development of grant writing skills through submission of F30/F31 proposals; (2) our Mentoring-the-Mentor Program which trains junior faculty in mentoring trainees under the guidance of a senior faculty; (3) Career counseling and networking development program, (4) Experiential learning with geriatrics population and translational research skill labs; (5) our institutional support which is proposed to expand those students who will have access to some or all of this training program; and (6) our focus on the development of research excellence and leadership among our trainees. Collectively, these attributes of our Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Training Program have produced outstanding trainees and we wish to continue these efforts.