NIH renews research grants on aging

The NIH has announced renewed funding of $23.4 million for 11 Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology and the designation of two additional sites.

“The Roybal Centers’ comprehensive research infrastructure facilitates collaborations among academic researchers and those in the public and private sectors who can help design and deliver novel approaches to a number of challenges of an aging society,” NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, MD, said in a press release announcing the grants that will span 5 years. “Through a range of projects, the centers seek to find new and better ways to maintain mobility and physical function; support sound financial and medical decision making; aid cognitive function; manage pain; and enhance caregiving.”

Past work under the program has included understanding how to improve flu vaccination rates and colonoscopy screenings, and using sensors to obtain real-time information from older patients in their homes to provide information in emergency situations as well as other data.

“Translational research is a two-way street,” Richard Suzman, PhD, director of NIA’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research, said in the release. “By strengthening the feedback loops between basic research and applications to real-world problems, we are able to more quickly integrate findings into health care practice. In addition, what the centers learn from their research activities also shapes the design and direction of future research.”

The two new centers are Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., which will develop healthy lifestyle interventions to increase physical activity in older adults, and Johns Hopkins University, which will conduct research on informal support structures around older adults from sources such as family and the community.