DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this proposal is to establish a new aging-related research-training grant on the campuses of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) and the University of Colorado-Boulder (UCB). The objectives of this training grant will be to: 1) support the aging-related research training of predoctoral students at UCB; 2) support the aging-related research training of Ph.D. fellows at UCB and UCHSC; 3) support the aging- related research training of M.D. research fellows at UCHSC and UCB; 4) further integrate and coalesce the aging-related research at UCHSC and UCB; 5) support the formal training of junior investigators as research mentors. The three program units that will make up this training experience include: 1) the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the UCHSC; 2) the Center for Human Nutrition at the UCHSC; and 3) the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the UCB. Each of these program units has individually been successful at producing research relevant to older adults and in training students and junior investigators in clinical and/or basic laboratory research. This training grant will take advantage of recent expansions in the programs and/or the resources within each of the participating units. This combined training grant will allow a greater interaction of the involved programs with a resultant improvement in the overall research environment and increase in research opportunities for students and fellows. As part of the overall training program, we intend to include a program for training junior faculty on mentoring skills. This will be accomplished through a "buddy" system of mentoring with a more senior faculty mentor and through a formal instructional program on mentoring skills being developed at UCHSC.
