Cellular and Molecular Biology of Aging

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Michigan requests funding for Years 16 - 20 of our Nathan Shock Center. UM receives more NIA funding than any other institution, and 48 grants in the biology of aging provide $10.4m/year in annual funding. Our Center's 2006 move to the new BSR building provided 21,000 square feet for Biogerontology, and allowed recruitment of four new tenure track researchers studying aging in mice, flies, and worms. The NSC Administrative Core will be led by Richard A. Miller, who will also serve as the Center Director. This core will facilitate communication among biogerontologists at UM and at other institutions, and take responsibility for advisory committees, interaction with UM and NIH officials, and supervision of an animal resource sharing website. The Research Development Core, headed by Susan Brooks, will administer a pilot grants program, organize an annual conference on a topic in aging research, and provide mentoring and financial support for a select group of junior faculty scientists. The Aging Rodent Core, led by Evan Keller, will support production of new transgenic and knockout mice, pay per diem costs to allow scientists to raise mice to old ages, and contribute to the costs of histopathologic analyses in the context of lifespan studies. The Drosophila Aging Core, directed by Scott Pletcher, will provide specialized equipment and validated protocols to support studies of aging, in flies, by experienced Drosophila geneticists new to aging, and by gerontologists who are just starting to incorporate Drosophila into their program. The Comparative Biogerontology Core, headed by Richard Miller, will create and characterize short-term primary fibroblast cells from a wide range of short-lived and long-lived rodents, primates, bats, birds, and dogs, and stimulate research at UM and elsewhere into cellular traits correlated with longevity across species. The Functional Assessment Core, directed by Greg Cartee, will provide advice and financial assistance to UM scientists who wish to make use of UM's exceptionally rich set of biomedical service core laboratories, to help Shock Center scientists, especially junior faculty members, introduce advanced methodologies into their research programs, including work on aims that might otherwise be deemed too risky or ambitious to tackle.