# The University of Southern California and Buck Institute Nathan Shock Center

> **NIH NIH P30** · BUCK INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON AGING · 2024 · $128,201

## Abstract

ABSTRACT OF SUPPLEMENT
Our Nathan Shock Center (NSC) of Excellence (P30 AG068345) provides access to geroscience technology,
research training, and research support for geroscientists across the United States. NSCs focus on the basic
biology of aging and thus use a variety of methodologies and technologies to advance our understanding of
geroscience. Users of our NSC study a variety of biological variables at the molecular, cell, tissue, organ, and
organismal levels. In addition to the requests from the geroscience community to use the vast resources of our
Geroscience Technology Core (GTC) and the expertise of our NSC faculty at USC, we are often asked if we can
couple these powerful studies with measurements of mitochondrial function and cellular metabolism. Currently,
our Seahorse instrument (>10 years old) does not provide adequate sensitive for the cells, tissues, organoid
samples of our awardees and potential applicants. As such, this lack of opportunity represents an unmet need
of the community of geroscience researchers that utilize our NSC cores. In order to advance tour capacity
to serve the geroscience researchers and projects performed at our USC mitochondria and metabolism core
(>90% junior investigators and >50% from outside of USC), we propose the purchase of a new, state-of-the-art
Seahorse XF Pro Complete. This instrument measures OCR and PER in a 96-well format, includes Wave Pro
SW with Discovery License, ATP and 12 cartridges, XF Imaging and Cell Counting SW w/ hand wand and boasts
a 35% increase in sensitivity, a 35% decrease in error range, improved design to minimize edge effects leading
to a 60% increase in the number of usable wells, and provides access to new kits and reagents designed
specifically for the XF Pro that our junior faculty and trainee awardees have requested. These measures are
essential to our ability to fully understand the underlying basis of aging and age-related diseases across all
hierarchical levels. Our administrative supplement will establish a powerful new tool in the arsenal of
technologies in the Geroscience Technology Core (GTC) at USC. These new technologies represent an
unexpected opportunity for USC to advance the research services, available to all geroscience users of our NSC
services at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC (always prioritizing junior faculty and emerging
geroscience researchers. As such, our administrative supplement will greatly impact geroscience nation-wide.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11001072
- **Project number:** 3P30AG068345-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** BUCK INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON AGING
- **Principal Investigator:** Sean P CURRAN
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $128,201
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11001072

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11001072, The University of Southern California and Buck Institute Nathan Shock Center (3P30AG068345-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11001072. Licensed CC0.

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