Author: Trish D'Antonio

The NIA has funded a major study to examine the overall health benefits and risk of statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) in adults age 75 or older without cardiovascular disease.  The trial, called Pragmatic Evaluation of Events and Benefits of Lipid-Lowering in Older Adults (PREVENTABLE), will help determine whether a statin can help prevent dementia and disability in this age group, as well as heart attacks and other cardiovascular-related deaths, while not increasing risks of adverse health outcomes. The investigators plan to enroll 20,000 participants who will be randomly assigned to take either the statin atorvastatin or a placebo daily for up to five years.

Drs. John Haaga, Director of the NIA Division of Behavioral and Social Research (DBSR), and John Phillips, Chief of the Population and Social Processes Branch within NIA DBSR, co-authored a blog on the new global initiative to spark low-cost health aging innovations. In collaboration with the National Academy of Medicine’s Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge, the NIA has released a new funding opportunity to fund projects that improve functioning and quality of life for older adults living in low- and middle-income countries or the low-income, disabled, and isolated older adults living in high-income countries.  The NIA is hopeful that this opportunity will encourage clever and reasonably priced solutions for healthy aging products, devices, or techniques that currently lack seed funding, and have a large and beneficial impact on older adults around the world.

Just a reminder that the Third Geroscience Summit: Targeting Chronic Diseases Through Geroscience will be taking place on November 4th & 5th on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD.  It will be an opportunity to learn more about the growing field of geroscience, or the intersection of basic aging biology, chronic disease, and health.  This event will also provide a forum for disease-focused professional societies and foundations to interact with the aging-biology community and geroscience researchers.  Registration for in-person attendance is closed, but you can use the links below to view the videocast.  We hope you will join us virtually if you’re not registered to attend in person!

Day 1, November 4 (https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=34895)

Day 2, November 5  (https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=34899)

Friends of NIA was pleased to join more than 300 organizations in signing on to a letter urging a meaningful increase in the FY20 LHHS-Ed bill to enable quick enactment of a robust funding increase for NIH. Many members of the Friends of NIA supported the letter as well.

The House-passed spending package and the draft bill released by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Sept. 18 would continue the momentum of recent years by providing NIH with a meaningful funding increase over the previous year. In particular, the $42.1 billion proposed in the Senate bill would offer even greater opportunity to expand NIH’s capacity to fund more promising research, provide support for the next generation of researchers, and allow the agency to address other critical needs. Despite the strong bipartisan support for medical research, we are concerned that NIH is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR), rather than under its final, full-year funding level. Aside from the budget implications, CRs create inefficiencies and uncertainty for both the agency and scientists across the country. Any further delay in finalizing FY 2020 funding levels – or, worse, reverting to a long-term stopgap that freezes funding at the levels in FY 2019 – would slow our progress toward cures and ultimately impede our ability to address major public health challenges.

On October 7, the Friends of the NIA joined Dr. Richard Hodes, NIA Director, Dr. Marie A. Bernard, NIA Deputy Director, and other NIA leadership to review recent NIA-funded science advances.  Scientific highlights include a variety of findings related to longevity and healthy aging, studies on the diverse biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and research on dementia care and caregiving.  This meeting was recorded and can be watched here. If you have any questions about the content of the presentation, please reach out to Melinda Kelley at [email protected].