'A Shot In The Arm'

Despite a substantial increase in the flow of financial support for gerontological research during the past several years, ambitious investigators of aging-associated phenomena continue to lament that their field is underfunded. One such investigator is Denham Harman, a professor, emeritus, at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha. The 78-year-old Harman for many years has argued that aging research deserves far more attention and financial support than it traditionally has received--especially because the United States population, according to demographic statistics, is rapidly getting older. "We need to spend more money on basic biomedical research on aging to go after its basic causes," he asserts. Harman acknowledges his gratification at seeing significant funding gestures in the past year alone by such private sources as the Charles A. Dana Foundation in New York and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research in Santa Barbara, Calif. And he was heartened most recently to hear of a $14.3 million infusion--called the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars in Aging Program--into the gerontology research effort from a consortium of three private foundations. Following are some of the professional societies whose memberships include biological, social science, and clinical researchers in the fields of geriatrics and gerontology. American Aging Association (AAA) American College of Clinical Gerontology (ACCG) 2129 Providence Ave. Chester, Pa. 19013 (610) 874-7550 Fax: (610) 876-7715 Arthur K. Balin, executive director of AAA and president of ACCG American Geriatrics Society 770 Lexington Ave., Suite 300 New York, N.Y. 10021 (212) 308-1414 Fax: (212) 832-8646 Harvey Jay Cohen, president Linda Hiddemen Barondess, executive vice president Gerontological Society of America 1275 K St., N.W., Suite 350 Washington, D.C. 20005-4006 (202) 842-1275 Fax: (202) 842-1150 E-mail (via Bitnet): gsa@gwuvm Linda K. George, president Carol Schutz, executive director Society for Neuroscience 11 Dupont Circle, N.W. Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 462-6688 Larry Squire, president Nancy Beang, executive director Harman nevertheless insists that backing for gerontology studies remains inadequate for the important task facing researchers in the field. "One should not be deluded," he warns. Last month's show of support through the Beeson program was announced by the initiative's three cosponsors: the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund--both New York- based private philanthropies--and the Alliance for Aging Research, a Washington, D.C., private, nonprofit advocacy group that promotes research and policy attention to issues of aging. The program's main purpose is to support young faculty members whose research relates to aging and to promote the study of aging across disciplines, especially in U.S. medical schools. The program is named as a tribute to gerontologist Paul Bruce Beeson, a professor of medicine and distinguished physician who is now retired from the University of Washington and the Veterans Administration Hospital, both located in Seattle. Robert Butler, a geriatrician at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and first director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), calls the initiative a "shot in the arm" for "young people just on the crest of their careers." Nevertheless, many observers are still calling for more funding. Over the last four years, three groups have separately proposed substantial increases for aging research. In 1990, the Pepper Commission TK, a U.S. bipartisan panel looking into comprehensive health care, recommended in its final report that the federal government move toward a funding level of $1 billion annually to finance "a research and development program aimed at preventing, delaying, and dealing with long-term illnesses and disabilities," including studies on such diseases and disorders as Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, and urinary incontinence. One year later, a committee from the Institute of Medicine echoed the Pepper Commission's recommendations. In its report, Extending Life, Enhancing Life: A National Research Agenda on Aging (Edmund T. Lonergan, ed., Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1991), the committee said that "a major investment in research on aging is needed urgently." This support should total "$913 million annually, a figure approaching the $1 billion recommended by the Pepper Commission," the report stated. Most recently, a group of 72 nonprofit professional and advocacy groups called the 1994 Task Force for Aging Research Funding issued a statement urging Congress and the president to "enact legislation authorizing $1 billion a year for aging research at NIH, and $2 billion a year by the end of the decade." And as Harman stated in a commentary in The Scientist (March 19, 1990, page 18), "Funding for basic biomedical research on aging is meager. Only between $25 and $50 million is available per year, largely from the National Institute on Aging. In contrast, more than $2 billion is allocated each year for two major causes of death--cancer and atherosclerosis." In fiscal 1994, close to half of NIA's total $420 million budget was devoted to Alzheimer's research, with the other half going to fund sociological, behavioral, psychological, and basic biomedical research (see story on page 14. Following are some of the funding sources for research on aging, including basic biomedical research, clinical research, and training: American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) AFAR Research Grants: awards of up to $40,000 for one year to junior faculty for preliminary research projects. Merck/AFAR Fellowships in Geriatric Clinical Pharmacology: awards of $100,000 over two years, cosponsored by Merck & Co. Inc., Rahway, N.J., to train physicians. Glenn Foundation/AFAR Scholarships in the Biology of Aging: awards of more than $5,000 for predoctoral students--both M.D. and Ph.D.--cosponsored by the Glenn Foundation, Santa Barbara, Calif., to conduct three-month biomedical research projects. For more information on these grants and the Beeson Scholars in Aging Program, contact Odette van der Willik, grants manager, AFAR, 1414 Ave. of the Americas, 18th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019; (212) 752-2327. Fax: (212) 832-2298. Grants of various amounts in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics. The foundation requests that prospective applicants submit a one-page letter explaining a project's concept. These are reviewed at monthly board meetings, whereupon some applicants are invited to submit a full proposal. For more information, contact Nora O'Brien, BFG, 126 E. 56th St., New York, N.Y. 10022. Gerontological Research Grants of up to $35,000 for one year in the areas of biology, pharmacology, immunology, geriatric medicine, psychogeriatrics, and epidemiology. The foundation is affiliated with the pharmaceutical company Sandoz Ltd. of Basel, Switzerland. For more information, contact Agnes Sisto, Sandoz Foundation, 59 Route 10, East Hanover, N.J. 07936-1080; (201) 503-8544. Fax: (201) 503-7185. --K.Y.K. Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research, agrees that there aren't enough funding sources to enable scientists to properly study the basic processes of aging. What the Beeson program will do, he says, "is bring a measure of high-quality science to bear on understanding the conditions that afflict older people. It will bring understanding the biology of aging into the forefront, and it will increase the sophistication of physicians in how to diagnose, treat, prevent, postpone, and rehabilitate chronic diseases in the elderly." Harman adds that the program "will increase the visibility of aging" as an area of research, so that, he says, more attention will be paid by the science community to this underrepresented discipline. "The goal for the Beeson program," says Perry, "is to have 30 leaders [in aging research] in place at the end of three years. Only a handful of medical students have an exposure to geriatrics and gerontology, and these are not exposed to the best science on aging at that. [The Beeson initiative] is more than a step in the right direction." Each year, for three years, the program will select 10 junior faculty members and provide each with a grant of up to $150,000. The application deadline for the first round of funding is December 15, with final decisions to be announced in April. A national committee, headed by William N. Kelley, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania's Medical Center and Health System and dean of Penn's School of Medicine in Philadelphia, will review applications and select the scholars. The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), a New York-based group that funds gerontology and geriatrics research, and the alliance will share administrative and technical support for the program. Creators of the program say its main emphasis is to attract top-flight young physician-scientists to commit their careers to research and training in aging. "The goal is to generate more well-prepared and leading junior faculty members," states Franklin Williams, scientific director at AFAR and a professor of medicine, emeritus, at the University of Rochester, New York, "and to give people who have promise the opportunity to have some really good free time for advancing their research and their careers. "I think the bulk of the applicants will probably be at the interface of biomedical and clinical research." The fields that prospective recipients could be from is "really quite open," remarks Williams, who was NIA director from 1983 to 1991. For example, he notes that the chosen scholars could just as likely have degrees in genetics, molecular biology, or physiology as in psychology or sociology. The following are some examples of private foundations that support aging research, but do not solicit grant applications: The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, Santa Barbara, Calif. (B. Warren, The Scientist, Nov.15, 1993, page 20)backs basic research on the biology of aging. In 1993 the foundation spent roughly $350,000 on unsolicited grants and fellowships. In 1993, the Charles A. Dana Foundation of New York contributed more than $8.4 million to establish a research consortium on memory loss and aging, composed of researchers from five leading medical centers -- Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York; Harvard University Medical School, Boston; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York; and the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia. In 1995, the Buck Center for Research in Aging in Novato, California funded by the Leonard and Beryl H. Buck Foundation -- is expected to break ground on a $40 million, I.M. Pei-designed research facility. --K.Y.K. Each scholar will be paired with a senior faculty mentor from his or her home institution. The program will stage an annual meeting of scholars, mentors, and leaders in academic medicine to review and disseminate research findings of the scholars. Almost every cry for more resources for aging research --whether for work on its sociological aspects or its biomedical underpinnings-- cites the demographic shift in the U.S. population to an older majority as the impetus. "In this century, with the baby boom, we've established departments of pediatrics in every medical school in the country and only one in geriatrics [the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York]," says the alliance's Perry. "It is this unprecedented and profound shift to an older population that is forcing medical schools to adjust, but they haven't been forced quickly enough. "Efforts by the federal government to induce training of faculty have been modest, at best. And what we now are seeing are these three nonprofit, philanthropic entities committing over $14 million to jump-start the field in the space of three years." And, according to Perry and others in the field, there are other places--but not enough--that are starting to commit large amounts of money to support research in aging, in addition to NIA's commitment. Non-NIA funding comes from such private groups as AFAR, the New York-based Brookdale Foundation Group, and the Sandoz Foundation for Gerontological Research in East Hanover, N.J. (see story on page 11). Still others like the Charles A. Dana Foundation of New York and the Buck Center for Research in Aging in Novato, Calif., mount their own research initiatives (see story on this page).

'A Shot In The Arm'

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of