Einstein's Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging

The Einstein Nathan Shock Center (E-NSC) has grown to includes internal (46) and external (33) members who are engaged in meaningful collaborations and programs and are recipients of P&F support. This growth was accompanied by an impressive publication record E-NSC members as exemplified in 124 papers and reviews in Nature, Cell and Science journals, a staggering average of approximately five collaborative papers (with other E-NSC members) per E-NSC investigator and the proactive recruitment and ‘conversion’ of many members to the E-NSC who were not members for previous submissions. Other resources are also important for E-NSC success, including large aging programs (P01 and U grants), an ongoing NIH-funded Einstein Aging (T32) training grant, a complementary graduate course on the Biology of Aging, and resources from funded projects through the Einstein Glenn Center for Biology of Human Aging. Activities of the E-NSC were leveraged by supplemental Institutional funding; the Center awarded 26 pilot and feasibility grants, with good outcomes. The three Research Resource Cores provided services to 167 investigators, offering state-of the art services with dependable quality control at an affordable price. The (abridged) aims of the E-NSC are: Aim 1) To enhance and expand ongoing biology of aging research by providing access to cutting-edge technology and innovative approaches through services that (excluding health span of rodents) do not exist in other NSCs: a) The Proteostasis of Aging Core (PAC) (Cuervo) will continue to provide assays, reagents and expertise for the analysis of proteostasis in aging. The PAC Innovation Unit will continue developing and implementing methodologies for the study of human aging proteostasis. It now includes a drug development consulting service. b) The Health Span Core (HSC) (Huffman) will continue to provide sophisticated integrative studies for determination of healthy aging physiology and resources for parabiosis studies. c) The Human Multi-omics Core (HMOC) (Vijg) will add services for planning and executing single cell epi/genomics analyses to address important problems in biology of aging. It will provide omic data (whole exome sequencing, aftamer proteomic data, transcriptomic and metabolomic) from well phenotyped human aging data. Aim 2) To plan and coordinate geroscience activities, foster collaborations and integrate activities of the Research Cores and research efforts at Einstein and other institutions. The Administrative Core (Barzilai/Cuervo) will continue implementing and promoting enrichment activities through seminars, mini-retreats and NSC national meetings, and developing resources to facilitate integration of groups engaged in aging research at institutions with limited aging research support; the Core also ensure that E-NSC services are well publicized. Aim 3) To provide support and an environment conducive to promotion of thriving new investigators in biology of aging through a Research Development Core (Milman/Singh). We will provide P&F awards and mentoring to new aging researchers and support for expansion/divergence of other ongoing exciting research programs.