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Principal Investigator: GERALD SCHATTEN
Organization: MAGEE-WOMEN'S RES INST AND FOUNDATION
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $366,824
Funding agency: National Institute on Aging
PROJECT SUMMARY
This application, responsive to PAR-17-290, seeks R25 funding for “Advancing Native
American Diversity in Aging Research through Undergraduate Education.” By offering
annual courses and mentored research—along with online virtual education and mentoring during
this COVID-19 pandemic—we recruit students from Native American backgrounds, both urban
and non-urban, to encourage them to pursue careers investigating Alzheimer’s disease and
related dementias (ADRD) and aging mechanisms, and help to launch their scientific careers.
The ADRD and aging fields continue to grow swiftly, as does the elderly population, yet there are
too few laboratories led by under-represented minority (URM) scientists, let alone Native
American PIs, and too few new URM trainees. This R25 is directed by Gerald Schatten, PhD
(Pitt), and Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD (Minnesota), who join David Burgess, PhD (Cherokee,
Boston College); Melissa Wells, PhD (Bois Forte & Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe, Johns
Hopkins - Duluth); Paul Robbins, PhD (Minnesota); and Calvin Simerly, PhD (Pitt) as the
Executive Committee. The course is held at Minnesota’s Institute on the Biology of Aging and
Metabolism, directed by Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD, and Paul Robbins, PhD. Daily lectures,
active learning, and extended discussions on emerging concepts, followed by lab and group
exercises and informal seminars are held over a week (August 15-21, 2021). Both hands-on and
online training for 16 participants on recent discoveries regarding ADRD’s root causes and
treatments is presented, with special attention devoted to Native Americans; the biology of aging
is also considered. Frequent interactions are maintained with each trainee afterwards, to evaluate
the course and provide ongoing mentoring. Conducted with sensitivity to tribal histories, five
specific aims are proposed: I. Provide conceptual education and research training in ADRD and
the Biology of Aging, with relevance for Native American trainees; II. Support mentored pilot
research, especially involving challenges in health disparities and diversity related to Native
Americans; III. Encourage trainees’ and alumni’s longer-term career planning through personal
coaching, mentoring sessions, and peer-to-peer advice; IV. Discuss NIH regulatory requirements
within the context of Tribal Sovereignty; and V. Evaluate, improve, and monitor the Native
American ADAR’s strengths and avoid weaknesses with unbiased, quantitative, independent
mechanisms which track trainees’ and alumni’s achievements to ensure that the program is a
wise, cost-effective investment. In so doing, we will enhance and expand the research careers of
promising trainees, especially Native Americans, to help ensure full diversity in the NIA and NIH.
Terms: <AD dementia><AD related dementia><ADRD><Achievement><Achievement Attainment><Active Learning><Aging><Alzheimer Type Dementia><Alzheimer disease dementia><Alzheimer sclerosis><Alzheimer syndrome><Alzheimer's><Alzheimer's Disease><Alzheimer's and related dementias><Alzheimer's disease and related dementia><Alzheimer's disease and related disorders><Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia><Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder><Alzheimer's disease or related dementia><Alzheimer's disease related dementia><Alzheimers Dementia><Attention><Biological><Biology of Aging><Boston><COVID crisis><COVID epidemic><COVID pandemic><COVID-19 crisis><COVID-19 epidemic><COVID-19 era><COVID-19 global health crisis><COVID-19 global pandemic><COVID-19 health crisis><COVID-19 pandemic><COVID-19 period><COVID-19 public health crisis><COVID-19 years><Career Counseling><Career Guidance><Cherokee><Cherokee Indian><Cooperative Learning><Doctor of Philosophy><Education><Education Projects><Education and Training><Educational aspects><Elderly><Ensure><Exercise><Experiential Learning><Faculty><Funding><Goals><History><Institute of Medicine><Institute of Medicine (U.S.)><Instruction><Intermediary Metabolism><Investigation><Investigators><Investments><Laboratories><Learning><Medical><Mentors><Metabolic Processes><Metabolism><Minnesota><Monitor><NAS/IOM><NIH><National Institutes of Health><Native American group><Native American individual><Native American people><Native American population><Native Americans><Nature><Occupational Guidance><Outcome><Participant><Ph.D.><PhD><Population><Primary Senile Degenerative Dementia><R25 Mechanism><R25 Program><Recording of previous events><Research><Research Personnel><Research Training><Researchers><SARS-CoV-2 epidemic><SARS-CoV-2 global health crisis><SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic><SARS-CoV-2 pandemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 epidemic><SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic><Scientist><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 epidemic><Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV 2 pandemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 epidemic><Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic><Student recruitment><Training><Training and Education><Tribes><Underrepresented Ethnic Minority><Underrepresented Minority><United States National Institutes of Health><Universities><Update><Vocational Counseling><Vocational Guidance><advanced age><aged group><aged groups><aged individual><aged individuals><aged people><aged person><aged persons><aged population><aged populations><aging associated mechanism><aging mechanism><aging pathway><aging population><aging related mechanism><biologic><biological mechanism of age><biological pathways of age><career><career counselor><college><collegiate><coronavirus disease 2019 crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic><coronavirus disease 2019 global health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 global pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis><coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic><coronavirus disease 2019 public health crisis><coronavirus disease crisis><coronavirus disease epidemic><coronavirus disease pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 global pandemic><coronavirus disease-19 pandemic><cost effective><design><designing><disparity in health><education research><executive coaching><geriatric><health disparity><histories><improved><innovate><innovation><innovative><lectures><medical college><medical schools><minority scientist><minority trainee><next generation><non-Native><nonnative><participant retention><peer><population aging><primary degenerative dementia><programs><recruit><response><school of medicine><senile dementia of the Alzheimer type><senior citizen><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global health crisis><severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic><training opportunity><treatment strategy><under-representation of minorities><under-represented minority><undergrad><undergraduate><undergraduate education><undergraduate student><underrepresentation of minorities><virtual><virtual education>