External Research Resources Support/Dissemination Core (RRDC)
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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH) represents a unique and highly successful collaboration between the Davis School of Gerontology of the University of Southern California (USC) and the Multi-campus Program in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), each of which focuses on research and teaching on aging. Since its inception in 1999, the CBPH has leveraged the unique combination of demographic and epidemiological expertise of the CBPH directors, along with the range of interdisciplinary expertise of CBPH faculty affiliates, to become a leader in the development of the field of biodemography. The CBPH has been at the forefront of efforts to promote theory-based integration of biological measurement into population-based studies and on-going development and validation of biological measurement protocols. The CBPH has effectively and efficiently developed infrastructure and pilot projects to improve understanding and use of biodemographic indicators, increase indicators available to population studies, support more reliable and valid collection of data across a large number of national and international surveys,
help introduce genetics to demographic and economic researchers, and made advances in measurement and validation in the field of genetics/genomics that allow population surveys to keep pace with the scientific advances in this area. This application proposes a set of activities
designed to (i) expand and enhance theoretical development of the field of biodemography, (ii) continue efforts to attract new and promising researchers to the field, and (iii) enhance our Center's unique role in supporting development, validation, implementation and dissemination of new and better biodemographic measurement protocols. The specific aims of the CBPH will be to: (1) support and foster biodemographic research to understand the multiple and interacting factors that affect population health (with a particular focus on expanding and deepening our understanding of the biological pathways through which experiences and exposures over the life-course impact trajectories of health and how such influences may vary across subgroups and settings)
Initiated in the 2009-2014 funding cycle, the over-arching goal of the External Research Resources & Dissemination Core (RRDC) is to provide resources and expertise needed to address critical barriers to improved biodemographic research - namely, the field's growing awareness of the need for comprehensive information on validated protocols for collection, processing and analysis of biological specimens for use in large population survey studies. The USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH)'s RRDC is uniquely well-positioned to support needed development of new protocols and validation of new and existing protocols as a consequence of the clinical and laboratory infrastructure and professional expertise we have in measurement and analysis of genetic/genomic and other indictors of health. The RRDC's primary goals are to: (1) support methodological/technical development and innovation along with validation work to extend the breadth of biomarker and other relevant protocols for use in population-based surveys; (2) disseminate resulting information on theoretical and practical aspects of biomarker measurement to the research community; and (3) increase knowledge about genetics/genomics through workshops offered at strategic professional meetings and training and technical support for genetic/genomic analysis. Over the past 4 years, the RRDC has made multiple, significant contributions to the field of biodemography as a whole. Aims for the coming period will extend and expand the RRDC's methodological and technical innovations and its educational activities in response to the continuing need for well-validated protocols, strategic and technical support for a growing array of biomarkers, and for dissemination of that information to the broader population health research community. Building on our, past success, the RRDC will pursue its aims through two "sub-cores" - one focusing on genetic markers and functional genomics and the other more generally on other biomarkers - and RRDC dissemination activities. Together, these subcores provide the unique expertise, equipment and methods needed for work on genetics/genomics while also maintaining infrastructure to support methodological and educational activities relating to a broader array of biomarkers. This dual focus allows the RRDC to maximize our ability to achieve the overarching goal of developing enhanced research resources and methods for research in biodemography and population health.
The overarching aim of the Program Development Core (PDC) is to provide pilot funding to support the development of innovative and ground-breaking research that will lead to a fuller understanding of the processes affecting population health at older ages and how these processes are faster or slower given biological, social, behavioral, psychological, economic, environmental, and health care conditions. Prior Center pilot projects have significantly increased our understanding of the roles of life circumstances, behaviors, stressors, biological factors, genetics in affecting health outcomes. These projects have also been highly successful in providing a basis for subsequent funded research and significant publications. In keeping with the overarching aim of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health (CBPH), we devote a subset of our pilot projects to the development of innovations in biological and health measurement and data that provide increased resources for the entire research community. Our proposed pilots for the first year reflect the areas of CBPH focus: genetic/epigenetic processes; biological risk factors; international comparisons and the role of neighborhood or environmental characteristics. The PDC has also been an important mechanism for integrating and developing biodemographic researchers at our Universities including emerging scholars, new faculty, and faculty transitioning into biodemography. We have also supported pilot work from other universities that is critical to the further development of the field. The PDC is strongly integrated with the activities of the Administrative Research Core (ARC) and our Research Resources and Dissemination Core (RRDC). Some pilots produce work integrated into our national meetings organized by the ARC and some pilots either begin or transition to validation projects in the RRDC.
