Core D - External Innovative Network Core

REVISED ABSTRACT – CORE E: EXTERNAL RESEARCH RESOURCES SUPPORT CORE (ERRSC)
The over-arching goal of the External Research Resources Support Core (ERRSC) is to support the entire field of population health and biodemography researchers in the sophisticated and impactful use of biomarkers and contextual (exposome) measures to understand how demographic and population processes shape human health and aging. The ERRSC accomplishes this goal by providing scientific expertise and technical, educational, and analytic resources needed to address critical barriers to improved biodemographic research – meeting the field’s on-going and constantly expanding need for comprehensive information on validated protocols for collection, processing, analysis, and interpretation of biomarker data in large population survey studies, and the field’s need to integrate contextual (exposome) data into biodemography. The ERRSC is comprised of two sub-cores: 1) a Biomarker Sub-core at UCLA which provides wet lab biomarker assay services and facilities, develops new methodological and analytical innovations, provides field-wide educational efforts, and conducts project-specific consulting and investigator mentorship, and 2) a Contextual Data Sub-core at USC which provides data resources and strategies for linking population health datasets with contextual data on the environmental exposome (e.g., healthcare, pollution, weather, food availability, social and economic disadvantage). This ERRSC is unique in its range of services and contributions due to its combination of educational and national/international client project consulting with wet lab assay services and technical development of new protocols and sample collection/assay systems, as well as with linkages to exposome measures with existing cohort studies. This renewal proposes activities to continue and expand on ERRSC contributions by: Aim 1 - Providing expertise, personnel, assay facilities, and technical innovations to support the use of molecular biomarker data in understanding the population health dynamics of morbidity, mortality, and aging biology, including DNAm, RNA, inflammation, immunosenescence, neurodegeneration, proteomics, and metabolomics; Aim 2 - Expanding the repository of area-level, contextual databases for population health research with a focus on both updating existing data and adding new measures relevant to understanding the role of the exposome in health and aging; and Aim 3 - Disseminating substantive and technical information on the use of biomarkers and contextual data through written and video materials on the Center website, project-specific consulting, meetings and workshops for the biodemographic community, and project-focused mentorship for both early career and established investigators entering the field of population health and aging demography. The ERRSC will continue to be a unique and critical resource in Biodemography, serving the entire field of population health researchers nation-wide and globally, as well as the broader scientific, policy, and lay communities.

Grant Number: 2P30AG017265-25
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: JENNIFER AILSHIRE