# GEROSCIENCE TRAINING PROGRAM IN OKLAHOMA

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR · 2021 · $407,540

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 This application is a revision of an application requesting 5 years of funding for an interdisciplinary
training on the biology of aging for 3 pre-doctoral students and 4 post-doctoral fellows. The proposed
program builds on the rapidly expanding expertise of 7 academic/research programs and three (3)
institutions, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma Medical Research
Foundation (OMRF) and the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. With the increased number of older
individuals in the United States and the world, the proposed program has been created to address the
unprecedented demand for researchers with expertise in the biology of aging that are trained to address the
complex nature of research on aging and age-related diseases. OUHSC, OMRF and the VA have devoted
extensive resources to the development of aging programs and in the past 7 years, and researchers from
these programs have been awarded over $83M in research/infrastructure support and published over 200
peer-reviewed manuscripts. This investment resulted in the recent successful submission of a Nathan
Shock Center of Excellence that was funded in July 2015. The primary goal of this program is to prepare
graduate students and post-doctoral fellows for careers as leaders in the emerging field of
Geroscience. Our goal is to provide rigorous, outstanding, innovative training for future scientists that are
entering specific disciplines in aging research. The program is composed of 15 faculty members from the
OUHSC/OMRF/VA campus and captures the intense collaborations, enthusiasm and the unique resources
of the aging community. The program is also supported by exceptional commitment from OUHSC and
OMRF, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and numerous programs and cores that are continuously
supported by each institution. Trainees selected for this program will be chosen competitively based on
academic excellence and their interest and motivation for careers in aging research. The primary activity of
the trainees will be to develop and complete research projects relevant to aging and/or age-related disease
using state-of-the-art technologies in genomics, proteomics, epigenetics, cell biology, biochemistry and
physiology. Because of the close collaborations among our faculty, trainees will be required to have a
primary and secondary mentor to ensure the highest quality of training and focus on aging research. The
trainees will also benefit from our Geroscience courses, clinical experiences, seminar programs, journal
clubs and retreats that are taught/overseen by well-established leaders in the field of aging. Finally trainees
will be mentored to develop appropriate presentation and grant writing skills and will be required to submit
an independent F-series grant proposal. In summary, this training program is designed to help exceptional
young scientists develop the intellectual, technical, writing and presentation skills needed for productive
careers as indepe...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10163757
- **Project number:** 5T32AG052363-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** William Edmund Sonntag
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $407,540
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-05-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10163757

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10163757, GEROSCIENCE TRAINING PROGRAM IN OKLAHOMA (5T32AG052363-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10163757. Licensed CC0.

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