Aging Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA): Live Long and Prosper

What:
Please join the Friends of the National Institute on Aging (FoNIA) for an hour-long briefing to learn about the groundbreaking research and educational efforts of the NIA. There will also be an informative discussion of the NIA’s funding by leading advocacy organizations. Please note there are briefings at both the House and the Senate

When and Where:
Friday, June 6, 2014

House Briefing
2318 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Click here to register for the House Briefing

Senate Briefing
188 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Click here to register for the Senate Briefing

Featured Speakers:

  • Richard J. Hodes, M.D., director, National Institute on Aging
  • Andrew B. Singleton, Ph.D., senior investigator and chief, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging
  • Susan Peschin, M.H.S., chair, Friends of the NIA, president & CEO, Alliance for Aging Research
  • Kathryn Jedrziewski, Ph.D., co-chair, Friends of the NIA, deputy director, Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania

Featured Panelists

  • Marie Bernard, M.D., deputy director, National Institute on Aging
  • John Haaga, Ph.D., deputy director, Division of Behavioral and Social Research, Extramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging
  • Ronald Kohanski, Ph.D., deputy director, Division of Aging Biology, Extramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging

 

 

 

 

 

Expert Discussion on the Effect of the Economic Downturn on American Families

Time: February 5, 2010 from 12pm to 1:30pm
Location: TBA
Event Type: expert, discussion
Organized By: Lisa Rosenberg at [email protected]

**DUE TO WEATHER CONDITIONS, THE BRIEFING IS CANCELLED.

___________________________________________
You are invited to an Expert Discussion on the Effect of the Economic Downturn on American Families
February 5, 2010, 12:00-1:30
The current economic downturn has touched almost every American family. High unemployment, depleted college savings accounts and decimated retirement plans are just a few of the problems that have left a large proportion of our population in a precarious financial situation. Policy makers need to understand the cradle-to-grave impact the downturn has had in order to develop policies and ensure the social safety net is wide enough to protect the most vulnerable populations. On Friday, February 5, The Population Association of America is bringing a panel of distinguished, nationally known researchers to Washington DC to sponsor a discussion on the impact the recent financial downturn has had on American families including:

  • Children of unemployed or underemployed parents
  • Young adults transitioning to higher education or the workforce
  • The aging and elderly

We hope you can join us for this important event. For more information or to RSVP, please contact: Lisa Rosenberg at [email protected]

Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus picture

FINDING AND FUNDING THE BEST SCIENCE: PEER REVIEW AT NIH

Time: July 22, 2009 from 12pm to 1pm
Location: 121 Cannon House Office Building
City/Town: Washington, DC
Event Type: congressional, biomedical, research,caucus, briefing
Organized By: Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus

Dr. Keith Yamamoto
University of California, San Francisco

Each year Congress appropriates billions of dollars to fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Did you ever consider how the money is distributed? With a budget of roughly $30 billion per year, the decisions that most strongly influence allocation of NIH funds are made by peer review by groups of professional scientists who typically are themselves funded by NIH. Is peer review really the best way to fund biomedical research? Are there intrinsic problems that compromise it? Could changes in peer review improve the quality of research?

These and other issues are discussed by Dr. Keith R. Yamamoto, an active scientist who has been involved in NIH peer review for almost 25 years, most recently leading an overall evaluation that produced key changes in the process.

Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus picture

Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Health Care for Older Americans

Time: June 17, 2009 from 12pm to 1pm
Location: 122 Cannon House Office Building
City/Town: Washington, DC
Event Type: congressional, biomedical, research,caucus, briefing
Organized By: Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus

Dr. Chad Boult
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Dr. Chad Boult and his team have created a new model of comprehensive health care, called Guided Care, which targets people living with multiple chronic conditions, the typical high-cost Medicare beneficiaries. His plan is based on the simple premise that a patient’s “care plan” is well coordinated, and patients and families are involved in and educated about the care plan. Guided Care is based on the simple notion that one trained professional should guide all aspects of care, uniting the patient, the family, and the medical team.

Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus picture

Using Genes to Redefine Disease

Dr. Atul Butte of Stanford University is at the forefront of the nascent field of translational bioinformatics—a field that seeks to create new diagnostics and therapeutics from genome-era information and data. Here he highlights how new uses for publicly available data have enabled us to ask new questions, including rethinking the nature of disease. Dr. Butte gathers this data on gene activity for scores of diseases. He is looking not at the symptoms or physiological measurements of disease, but at their genetic underpinnings. He performs statistical analyses to map disease based on similarities in their patterns of gene activity. Dr. Butte is able to show how using genes to redefine disease enables the discovery of new causes for disease, suggests novel roles for drugs in the treatment of disease, and, for the first time, allows us to probe the inner commonality across diseases that previously seemed dissimilar.