Stanford Medicine Center for Longevity and Healthy Aging

The NIA is committed to mentor promising scientists in the biomedical sciences for sustained and impactful behavioral and social science research careers focused on aging research, and AD-related dementias (ADRD). The Stanford Medicine Center for Longevity and Healthy Aging was founded in 2018 to advance translational longevity and healthy aging research using emerging methodologies. Guided by our multi-stakeholder advisory board, we successfully expanded into the multi-organizational research consortium, which now includes Stanford University, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, other partner organizations including Palo Alto University, San Jose State University, and several community partners. We are primarily focused on chronic diseases and ADRD. Our goals are to: (i) expand the research workforce by recruiting, retaining, and mentoring new leaders in translational longevity and healthy aging research and (ii) promote new advances and methodologies in biobehavioral and social sciences in longevity and aging research. By providing pilot funds, methodological and recruitment support, ongoing mentoring, and leadership and professional development opportunities, we will create and support a deep bench of investigators who are equipped to lead the next generation of the longevity and healthy aging research workforce. Our specific aims are to: 1) Train and mentor the next generation of the research workforce with the knowledge and skills in clinical and translational longevity and healthy aging research. 2) Conduct rigorous and reproducible research using data-driven artificial intelligence/machine learning approaches, virtual reality, and emerging methodologies to improve longevity and healthy aging for all. 3) Maximize community engagement and coordinate consortium-wide efforts to advance innovative longevity and healthy aging research. 4) Expand the Longevity and Healthy Aging Research Consortium, deepen existing and forge new partnerships with other research organizations including resource-limited institutions (RLI), to jointly recruit, mentor, and retain junior investigators in clinical and translational aging research.