Improving the Health and Well-Being of Older Americans by Translating Research into Practice

Translating research knowledge into practical advances to benefit the health and well being of older Americans has increasingly become a priority for both agencies. Although there is some adoption of translated, evidence-based interventions into practice, it has been limited and few evidence-based interventions have been brought to scale nationwide. This program announcement encourages applications that focus on the translation of behavioral and social research in aging into the development of new interventions that can be used by community-based organizations that assist elderly individuals. 

Collaborations between academic research centers and community-based organizations with expertise serving the elderly are a top priority.  Partnerships of this nature will enhance our understanding of practical tools, techniques, programs and policies that communities across the nation can use to more effectively respond to needs of their aging populations. The two funding announcements can be found on the NIH website at:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-123.html

Calling All Couch Potatoes! Walking Boosts Brain Connectivity, Function

A group of "professional couch potatoes," as one researcher described them, has proven that even moderate exercise - in this case walking at one's own pace for 40 minutes three times a week - can enhance the connectivity of important brain circuits, combat declines in brain function associated with aging and increase performance on cognitive tasks.

The study, in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, followed 65 adults, aged 59 to 80, who joined a walking group or stretching and toning group for a year. All of the participants were sedentary before the study, reporting less than two episodes of physical activity lasting 30 minutes or more in the previous six months. The researchers also measured brain activity in 32 younger (18- to 35-year-old) adults.

Rather than focusing on specific brain structures, the study looked at activity in brain regions that function together as networks.

"Almost nothing in the brain gets done by one area - it's more of a circuit," said University of Illinois psychology professor and Beckman Institute Director Art Kramer, who led the study with kinesiology and community health professor Edward McAuley and doctoral student Michelle Voss. "These networks can become more or less connected. In general, as we get older, they become less connected, so we were interested in the effects of fitness on connectivity of brain networks that show the most dysfunction with age."

Neuroscientists have identified several distinct brain circuits. Perhaps the most intriguing is the default mode network (DMN), which dominates brain activity when a person is least engaged with the outside world - either passively observing something or simply daydreaming.

Previous studies found that a loss of coordination in the DMN is a common symptom of aging and in extreme cases can be a marker of disease, Voss said.

"For example, people with Alzheimer's disease tend to have less activity in the default mode network and they tend to have less connectivity," she said. Low connectivity means that the different parts of the circuit are not operating in sync. Like poorly trained athletes on a rowing team, the brain regions that make up the circuit lack coordination and so do not function at optimal efficiency or speed, Voss said.

In a healthy young brain, activity in the DMN quickly diminishes when a person engages in an activity that requires focus on the external environment. Older people, people with Alzheimer's disease and those who are schizophrenic have more difficulty "down-regulating" the DMN so that other brain networks can come to the fore, Kramer said.

A recent study by Kramer, Voss and their colleagues found that older adults who are more fit tend to have better connectivity in specific regions of the DMN than their sedentary peers. Those with more connectivity in the DMN also tend to be better at planning, prioritizing, strategizing and multi-tasking.

The new study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether aerobic activity increased connectivity in the DMN or other brain networks. The researchers measured participants' brain connectivity and performance on cognitive tasks at the beginning of the study, at six months and after a year of either walking or toning and stretching.

At the end of the year, DMN connectivity was significantly improved in the brains of the older walkers, but not in the stretching and toning group, the researchers report.
The walkers also had increased connectivity in parts of another brain circuit (the fronto-executive network, which aids in the performance of complex tasks) and they did significantly better on cognitive tests than their toning and stretching peers.

Previous studies have found that aerobic exercise can enhance the function of specific brain structures, Kramer said. This study shows that even moderate aerobic exercise also improves the coordination of important brain networks.

"The higher the connectivity, the better the performance on some of these cognitive tasks, especially the ones we call executive control tasks - things like planning, scheduling, dealing with ambiguity, working memory and multitasking," Kramer said. These are the very skills that tend to decline with aging, he said.

This study was supported by the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

News Analysis - In Push to Detect Early Alzheimer’s Markers, Hopes for Prevention - NYTimes.com

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by Gina Kolata

Will Alzheimer’s disease, a terrible degenerative brain disease with no treatments and no clear guidelines for diagnosis before its end stages, become like heart disease? That might mean early markers of risk, analogous to high cholesterol levels, that predict who is likely to get it. And it might mean drugs that actually prevent it.

That is the hope behind new diagnostic guidelines being proposed by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association.

In July, when the groups first announced their proposed guidelines, they were met with some skepticism and anger. Why suggest ways of diagnosing the disease before a person even has symptoms? Why tell people they are doomed?

And are those early diagnosis guidelines just a sop to pharmaceutical companies so they can start marketing expensive, and perhaps not very effective, new drugs?

So the Alzheimer’s Association, with participation from the National Institute on Aging, held a conference call on Wednesday to clarify their position.
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TIME GOES BY | Big Brother is Out to Control All Elders' Money

by Ronni Bennett

Recently, Cowtown Pattie of Texas Trifles blog sent me an eight-page brief [pdf] from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College titled What is the Age of Reason? In Pattie's words, it is a “chilling read” and she is not wrong.

The four authors of this brief are identified as a senior financial economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve System, a professor of finance at New York University and another professor at Harvard.

Among them, they acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) which is a federal agency and the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a division of the National Institutes of Health that describes itself as “leading the federal effort on aging research.” Bear with me – it's important that you know the genesis of this document.

The authors note that the views expressed in the brief

“do not represent the policies or positions of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, or the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.”

Whether the views of the NSF or NIA are represented is not stated.

Four of those eight pages of the brief are a title page, references and endnotes, so there's not much text.
The majority of the brief, including four graphs, gives a short overview of studies the authors analyzed which, they say, show “The prevalence of both dementia and cognitive impairment without dementia rises rapidly with age” and that older adults make more financial mistakes than mid-age adults.

All right - so far, so good in that this is true for SOME old people, although the information is nothing new. This is what academics do – slice and dice each other's work, sometimes to good effect and sometimes not, and issue thousands of briefs every year most of which sink into oblivion. But then the authors get to their conclusions ominously titled, “Possible Policy Responses”:

“In response to this problem, several policy approaches are possible and government intervention is probably desirable, although the ideal form of intervention remains unclear.” [emphasis added]

The authors immediately dismiss their first and only benign policy suggestion for government intervention - to strengthen financial disclosure requirements to the public – by stating that “we are skeptical that improved disclosure will be effective in improving financial choices.”

Then the brief begins to get scary – remember, this all targets elders. The second suggestion involves “financial driving licenses,” the requirement to pass a test before being allowed to make non-trivial financial decisions. They ask a whole bunch of feasibility questions including the all-important, Who would be required to take the test?

Well, not me; I will resist clear to the barricades. Reading this brief, I'm beginning to have some sympathy for the teabaggers who object to too much government.

In their final suggestion, the authors step all the way across the line into totalitarianism with “mandatory advance directives” in which adults would be required by a certain age to sign a document placing management of their assets with a third party if they become incapacitated.

That's already too much to stomach, but it gets worse.

“...a fiduciary could be appointed to approve all 'significant financial transactions' involving the principal’s funds after the principal reaches a designated age.” [emphasis added]

In regard to that diabological idea, the authors admit that “it might be perceived by some older adults as an unfair restriction targeted against them.”

DUH!

Not content to pull Social Security out from under elders (as too many in Congress are currently attempting to do), now they are thinking up ways to take everything else old people have.

As I noted above, thousands of such studies are written each year and most sink out of sight before the ink is dry. Some of them sometimes work their way through the bureaucracy to become policy or law. I have no confidence that this one, that would give the government or its appointees access to trillions of dollars in elder assets, will disappear.

Remember that two of these researchers work for federal agencies involved with monetary policy of commercial and investment banking, two others with major universities that are paid to supply the federal government with policy research, and the funding for this project comes from two other federal agencies.

Read the brief for yourself here [pdf].


TIME GOES BY | Big Brother is Out to Control All Elders' Money

Biomarkers, Imaging Ready for Prime Time

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today

Brain imaging results and biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can now be used clinically in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, according to new guidelines proposed by a working group from the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association.

If adopted, the guidelines would be the first major update in diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease since 1984.
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'Father of modern gerontology' Robert N. Butler dies at 83

By Emma Brown Washington Post Staff Writer

Robert N. Butler, 83, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, psychiatrist and expert on aging who helped illuminate the "quiet despair, deprivation, desolation and muted rage" that he said characterized the act of growing old in America, and who co-wrote a best-selling sex manual for senior citizens, died July 4 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He had leukemia.


For more than half a century, Dr. Butler was a leading advocate in academic and policy circles for the dignified treatment and care of the elderly. He coined the term "ageism" to describe systematic discrimination against older people and challenged lawmakers, scientists and medical students to consider how to create a health-care system in which Americans could grow old gracefully.
Read More About Dr Butler and His Accomplishments

Photo Credit: Larry Barns/mount Sinai Medical Center

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Study Shows Age Doesn't Necessarily Affect Decisions

from Medical News Today

Many people believe that getting older means losing a mental edge, leading to poor decision-making. But a new study from North Carolina State University shows that when it comes to making intuitive decisions - using your "gut instincts" - older adults fare as well as their juniors.

The researchers tested groups of young adults (aged 17-28) and community-dwelling older adults (aged 60-86) - meaning they live in the community, rather than in a nursing home - to see how they fared when making decisions based on intuitive evaluation. For example, study participants were asked to choose from a list of apartments based on each apartment's overall positive attributes. Under such conditions, young and older adults were equally adept at making decisions.

"But not every decision can be made that way," says Dr. Thomas Hess, a professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of the study. "Some decisions require more active deliberation. For example, those decisions that require people to distinguish pieces of information that are important from those that are unimportant to the decision at hand." And when it comes to more complex decision-making, Hess says, older adults face more challenges than their younger counterparts.

In one portion of the study, participants were given a list of specific criteria to use in selecting an apartment. That list was then taken away, and each participant had to rely on his or her memory to incorporate the criteria into their decision-making.

However, there was considerable variation among the older adults who participated in the study - some did very well at the complex decision-making. "Older adults with a higher education did a better job of remembering specific criteria and utilizing them when they made decisions," says lead author Tara Queen, a psychology Ph.D. student at NC State. "Ultimately, they made better choices."

"This tells us that the effects of age on decision-making are not universal," Hess says. "When it comes to making intuitive decisions, like choosing a dish to order from a menu, young and old are similar. Age differences are more likely to crop up when it comes to complex decision-making, such as choosing a health-care plan based on a complex array of information. But even then, it appears that any negative effects of aging will be more evident in those with lower levels of education."

The research can be used to change the way we present information to older adults, Hess adds. Queen explains that "presenting older adults with overwhelming amounts of information is less beneficial to them. For example, different people have different priorities. Information can be broken down into categories. People could then decide which categories are most important to them, and dig down for additional information as needed."

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The New Landscape - Preparing to Care for an Aging Population - NYTimes.com

by Milt Freudenheim

With a nudge from the new health care law and pressure from Medicare, hospitals, doctors and nurses are struggling to prepare for explosive growth in the numbers of high-risk elderly patients.

More than 40 percent of adult patients in acute care hospital beds are 65 or older. Seventy million Americans will have turned 65 by 2030. They include the 85-and-older cohort, the nation’s fastest-growing age group.
Elderly people often have multiple chronic illnesses, expensive to treat, and they are apt to require costly hospital readmissions, sometimes as often as 10 times in a single year.
The Obama administration is spending $500 million from last year’s stimulus package to support the training of doctors and nurses and other health care providers at all levels, “from college teachers through work force professionals on the front lines of patient care,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services.
But the administration and Congress seem to be paying less attention to geriatric health issues. For example, only 11 percent of research funding at the National Institutes of Health went to aging research last year.
“In every area of aging — education, clinical care, research — people just don’t realize how dire the situation is,” said Dr. David B. Reuben, chief of the geriatrics division of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Judith Salerno, a geriatrician who is executive officer of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, agreed. “All the most common causes of death and illness and functional impairment in the general population are diseases of aging,” she said.

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Despite Aging Baby Boomers, N.I.H. Devotes Only 11 Percent to Elderly Studies - NYTimes.com

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by Milt Freudenheim

The health needs of tens of millions of aging baby boomers threaten to overwhelm the nation’s hospitals and caregivers within a decade or two, but the geriatric tidal wave does not appear to have been fully recognized at the National Institutes of Health.

The N.I.H., the nation’s main medical research center, is devoting only about 11 percent of its $31 billion budget to studies directly involving health concerns of the elderly. Less than one-third of the $3.46 billion in aging research reported this fiscal year is channeled through the National Institute on Aging, nominally the main center for geriatric research.

Most of the funds, including some involving Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and osteoporosis, came through other N.I.H. institutes.

Aging is just one of a half dozen “compelling” opportunities for important scientific advances, said Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the national institutes. “Aging is very much on our radar screen.” he said. “So, of course, is diabetes, so is cancer, so is mental illness, so is research on children, autism.”

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Aging Studies in the Pulmonary System

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The National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) invite research project grant applications that explore age-associated changes in pulmonary physiology, pathology and function, and their relationship to respiratory conditions and diseases that occur commonly in older populations. The goal of this FOA is to support basic, clinical and translational research to address physiological mechanisms underlying progressive functional declines in the pulmonary system. This research will likely enhance our basic understanding of molecular and cellular aspects of pulmonary aging, which may translate into improvements in the prevention and management of pulmonary diseases in older persons. Projects involving in vitro studies, animal models, and/or human subjects are of significant interest to NIA and NHLBI. Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the R01 grant mechanism Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. Awards issued under this FOA are contingent upon the availability of funds and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.

Link to Full Announcement

NIH Panel Provides No New Clues for Unraveling Alzheimer's Disease from MedPage Today

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By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today

More than a century after German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer identified the cognitively devastating disease that affects as many as 5.3 million people in the U.S. alone, an expert panel has issued a decidedly bleak report on the state of the science of Alzheimer's disease.

The independent panel -- brought together by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this week -- determined that the causes of Alzheimer's disease are still unknown and that no reliable evidence has shown that anything can prevent the disease or stop it from progressing.
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National Institute on Aging; Notice of Meeting

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The meeting will be open to the public as indicated below, with attendance limited to space available. Individuals who plan to attend and need special assistance, such as sign language interpretation or other reasonable accommodations, should notify the Contact Person listed below in advance of the meeting.

The meeting will be closed to the public in accordance with the provisions set forth in sections 552b(c)(4) and 552b(c)(6), Title 5 U.S.C., as amended. The grant applications and the discussions could disclose confidential trade secrets or commercial property such as patentable material, and personal information concerning individuals associated with the grant applications, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Name of Committee: National Advisory Council on Aging.

Date: May 25-26, 2010.

Closed: May 25, 2010, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Agenda: To review and evaluate grant applications.

Place: National Institutes of Health, Building 31, 31 Center Drive, C Wing, Conference Room 10, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Open: May 26, 2010, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Agenda: Call to order and reports from the Task Force on Minority Aging Research, the Working Group on Program; Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology Review; and Program Highlights.

Place: National Institutes of Health, Building 31, 31 Center Drive, C Wing, Conference Room 10, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Contact Person: Robin Barr, Ph.D., Director, National Institute On Aging, Office of Extramural Activities, Gateway Building, 7201 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. (301) 496-9322. barrr@nia.nih.gov.

Social Network Analysis and Health (R01)

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Executive Summary

* Purpose. This FOA encourages research that aims to accomplish one or more specific goals: (1) generate new theories that would enhance the capabilities and value of Social Network Analysis (SNA); (2) address fundamental questions about social interactions and processes in social networks; (3) address fundamental questions about social networks in relation to health and health-related behaviors; (4) develop innovative methodologies and technologies to facilitate, improve, and expand the capabilities of SNA.

* Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the R01 grant mechanism and runs in parallel with a FOA of identical scientific scope, PAR-10-146, that encourages applications under the R21 grant mechanism.

* Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. Because the nature and scope of the proposed research will vary from application to application, it is anticipated that the size and duration of each award will also vary. The total amount awarded and the number of awards will depend upon the mechanism numbers, quality, duration, and costs of the applications received.

* Budget and Project Period. The total project period for an application submitted in response to this funding opportunity may not exceed 5 years. Applicants for an R01 award are not limited in dollars but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

* Application Research Strategy Length. The R01 Research Strategy section may not exceed 12 pages, including tables, graphs, figures, diagrams, and charts. See Table of Page Limits.

* Eligible Institutions/Organizations. Institutions/organizations listed in Section III, 1.A. are eligible to apply.

* Eligible Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs). Individuals with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research are invited to work with their institution/organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support.

* Number of PDs/PIs. More than one PD/PI (i.e., multiple PDs/PIs) may be designated on the application.

* Number of Applications. Applicants may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.

* Resubmissions. Applicants may submit a resubmission application, but such application must include an Introduction addressing the previous peer review critique (Summary Statement). See new NIH policy on resubmission (amended) applications (NOT-OD-09-003, NOT-OD-09-016).

* Renewals. Applicants may submit a renewal application.

* Special Date(s). This FOA uses non-standard due dates. See Receipt, Review and Anticipated Start Dates

* Application Materials. See Section IV.1 for application materials.

* General Information. For general information on SF424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission, see these Web sites:
o SF424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission Information: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm
o General information on Electronic Submission of Grant Applications: http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/

* Hearing Impaired. Telecommunications for the hearing impaired are available at: TTY: (301) 451-5936

More Information

Major Grant Puts Wake Forest In Lead Role On Study About Mobility Disability In Older Adults

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(Medical News Today) Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, together with Wake Forest University, will play a key role in a new study that seeks to determine whether a program of structured physical activity can prevent or delay major mobility disabilities in older adults.

The six-year study, called the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders, or LIFE, will be the largest study to date that looks at ways to prevent mobility disability in seniors. When completed, funding for the project is expected to total more than $60 million from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), including $29.5 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

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LSUHSC Research Yields Promising Stroke Treatment

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from Medical News Today

For the first time, research led by Youming Lu, PhD, MD, Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has identified a novel mechanism that may trigger brain damage during stroke and identified a therapeutic approach to block it. The work, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), both of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as the American Heart Association, was published in the January 22, 2010 issue of the top tier journal, Cell, also available online.

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Hypothermia: Staying Safe in Cold Weather, January 14, 2010 News Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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Frigid weather can pose special risks to older adults. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, has some advice for helping older people avoid hypothermia — when the body gets too cold — during cold weather.

Hypothermia is defined as having a core body temperature of 96 degrees Fahrenheit or lower and can occur when the outside environment gets too cold or the body's heat production decreases. Older adults are especially vulnerable to hypothermia because their body's response to cold can be diminished by underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and some medicines, including over-the-counter cold remedies. Hypothermia can develop in older adults after relatively short exposure to cold weather or a small drop in temperature, because they may be less active and therefore generate less body heat.

If you suspect that someone is suffering from the cold and you have a thermometer available, take his or her temperature. If it's 96 degrees F or lower, call 911 for immediate help. If you see someone who has been exposed to the cold and has the following symptoms: slowed or slurred speech, sleepiness or confusion, shivering or stiffness in the arms and legs, poor control over body movements or slow reactions, and a weak pulse, he or she may be suffering from hypothermia.

Here are a few tips to help you prevent hypothermia:

* Make sure your home is warm enough. Set your thermostat to at least 68 to 70 degrees F. Even mildly cool homes with temperatures from 60 to 65 degrees F can trigger hypothermia in older people.
* To stay warm at home, wear long underwear under your clothes, along with socks and slippers. Use a blanket or afghan to keep legs and shoulders warm and wear a hat or cap indoors.
* When venturing outside in the cold, it is important to wear a hat, scarf, and gloves or mittens to prevent loss of body heat through your head, hands and feet. A hat is particularly important because a large portion of body heat loss is through the head. Wear several layers of warm loose clothing to help trap warm air between the layers.
* Check with your doctor to see if any prescription or over-the-counter medications you are taking may increase your risk for hypothermia.

Because heating costs are high, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has funds to help low-income families pay their heating bills. For more information, contact the National Energy Assistance Referral (1-866-674-6327) or the Eldercare Locator (1-800-677-1116).

The NIA has free information about hypothermia. To order the fact sheet, Hypothermia: A Cold Weather Hazard, or the brochure, Stay Safe in Cold Weather, call toll free 1-800-222-2225. Hipotermia: El Peligro de las Bajas Temperaturas is also available. These and other free publications on healthy aging also can be downloaded from the NIA Web site at www.nia.nih.gov.

The NIA leads the federal effort supporting and conducting research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral issues of older people. For more information on research and aging, go to www.nia.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Retirement Economics

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) invites applications for research on retirement economics. The research objectives of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) include, but are not limited to:

(1) the determinants of retirement behavior,
(2) the variation in work patterns in later life,
(3) the evolution of health and economic circumstances of individuals through retirement and into later life,
(4) time use and life satisfaction before and during retirement,
(5) the implications of retirement trends,
(6) retirement expectations,
(7) international comparisons of retirement and
(8) the development of innovative retirement modeling techniques.

Partnering Awards to Support Collaborative Research on the Biology of Aging

This FOA issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) solicits three year Research Project Grant (R01) applications from research partners in the United States (U.S.) and the United Kingdom (U.K.) to support collaborative research projects focused on understanding the biology of aging. Only applications to support true collaborative research projects under the direction of one U.S. and one U.K. scientist are eligible for this FOA. This program includes funds to support the international travel of research partners between their U.S. and U.K. laboratories to enhance research training and collaborations. In addition, funds to allow all grantees in the program to participate in annual meetings to promote scientific interaction and discuss recent scientific advances in aging biology will be permitted. Funds to support yearly grantee meetings will be organized and coordinated by NIA staff in the U.S. and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) staff (http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/ ) in the U.K. Mechanism of Support. The total amount of NIA FY2009 funds to support the U.S. component is $1.0 million. Matching funds from the U.K. BBSRC will be available to support the U.K. component of the collaborative projects. The anticipated number of joint NIA and BBSRC awards is 5 to 6. Each award will have a three year term. Current Closing Date for Applications: Mar 10, 2009

Alzheimer's Disease: Unraveling the Mystery

Over the past few decades, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has emerged from obscurity. Once considered a rare disorder, it is now seen as a major public health problem that has a severe impact on millions of older Americans and their families. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is the lead agency for AD research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIA launched its AD program in 1978, and since then, the study of this disease has become one of NIA’s top priorities. Several other NIH institutes also conduct and sponsor studies on AD.

Thanks to the work of NIH institutes, other research organizations around the world, and many private-sector research, education, and advocacy groups, the study of AD is moving ahead rapidly. This book explains what AD is, describes the main areas in which researchers are working, and highlights new approaches for helping families and friends care for people with AD.

Functioning of People with Mental Disorders (R01)

Purpose. Although considerable advances have been made in improving the symptoms associated with mental disorders, symptom improvement is often only modestly associated with improvements in daily functioning (i.e., the performance of social, occupational, and instrumental tasks of daily living), and most current treatments have limited impact on the functioning and participation of those with mental disorders. The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), is the application of biobehavioral science methods and approaches to: a) develop and refine definitions and measures of function, disability, and daily participation relevant to those with mental disorders; b) understand the ecological mechanisms, independent of symptom severity, that contribute to functioning and disability in this population; and c) develop and test novel interventions that specifically and directly target functional capacity and performance deficits of this population. Emphasis will be on the application of basic behavioral processes (e.g., cognition, affect, knowledge, attitudes, motivation, learning, decision-making, interpersonal processes), and environmental parameters (e.g., social support, structural adaptations, community involvement) that influence functional outcome. Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) award mechanism. Applications of identical scientific scope and appropriateness for the grant mechanism are encouraged also under the NIH Small Research Grant (R03), the NIMH Clinical Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R34), and the NIMH Collaborative Grants Program (Collaborative R01) award mechanisms, responding to FOAs PA-06-180, PA-06-248, and PA-07-092, respectively. Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. Awards issued under this FOA are contingent upon the availability of funds and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications. Budget and Project Period. The total project period for an application submitted in response to this funding opportunity may not exceed 5 years. Applicants for an R01 award are not limited in dollars but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. Application Research Plan Component Length: The R01 application Research Plan component of the PHS398 (Items 2-5) may not exceed 25 pages, including tables, graphs, figures, diagrams, and charts (see also http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_program.htm). Eligible Institutions/Organizations. Institutions/organizations listed in Section III, 1.A. are eligible to apply. Eligible Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PDs/PIs). Include Individuals with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research are invited to work with their institution/organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support. Number of PDs/PIs. More than one PD/PI (i.e., multiple PDs/PIs), may be designated on the application. Number of Applications. Applicants may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct. Application Materials. See Section IV.1 for application materials.