Basic Science Research

Although everyone in the world gets older all the time, basic science research helps us continue to learn about fundamental biology and how it can affect the process of aging.

Innovative Basic Science Research in Geroscience

As a geroscience basic science researcher, you can take advantage of innovative research laboratories and services at OU Health Oklahoma Center for Geroscience in Oklahoma City. With a focus on the biology that plays a crucial role in aging and age-related diseases, basic science research improves our understanding of the aging process through a wide range of topics, projects, studies and themes, such as:

• How caloric restriction promotes healthy aging
• How cellular proteins lead to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease
• How Type 2 diabetes may affect cells that regulate blood flow in the brain and lead to cognitive impairment
• How production of certain neurotransmitters may contribute to age-related cognitive impairment
• The role of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 in development of cerebral microhemorrhages (CMH) with aging
• Exploration of cellular processes associated with aging, including the mTOR1C activity pathway and the systems ensuring fidelity in RNA processing

New knowledge from basic science research illuminates potential routes to target for treating age-related diseases and conditions.

Research Support from National Institutes of Health

At the Oklahoma Center for Geroscience, three program projects funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide support for the geroscience research initiative and researchers:

• Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center on Aging – Offers six core services to investigators focused on the biology of aging, with technologies and expertise not readily available at a single institution; cores include:
  • Program enhancement – Provides leadership for promoting research into healthy aging throughout Oklahoma; includes annual Geroscience Symposium for researchers statewide to share information
  • Research development – Offers access to research expertise and collaboration, as well as innovative instruments and facilities to help investigators solve complex problems of aging and age-related disease
  • Geroscience redox biology – Provides coordinated, comprehensive evaluation of molecules, pathways and systems contributing to oxidative metabolism and oxidative stress in the processes of aging and age-related disease
  • Multiplexing protein analysis – Helps investigators determine dynamic regulation of individual proteins through LC-tandem mass spectrometry (MS) with selected reaction monitoring (SRM) and LC-high resolution accurate mass selected ion monitoring (SIM) to measure protein abundance and isotope enrichment
  • Genomic sciences – Provides unique assays of DNA modifications and mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) heteroplasmy typically not present in individual laboratories or institutional core facilities
  • Geroinformatics – Offers support in statistics and bioinformatics for data analysis; uses original novel software developed at the Oklahoma Center that employs predictive methods to help discover new genes and genomic regions, as well as interpret biological changes that accompany aging
• Geroscience CoBRE (Center of Biomedical Research Excellence) – Funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS); offers three additional core services to support early-career investigators focused on research into aging and age-related diseases
• T32 research training – Provides opportunities for early-career researchers to explore and develop emerging topics, gain valuable research skills and benefit from professional mentorship

When you become a researcher at Oklahoma Center for Geroscience, you also may gain access to extensive research facilities and cores through the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC).

Join Oklahoma’s Geroscience Professionals

As a clinician, educator or researcher working in the area of age-related disease, you’re encouraged to become a member of the Oklahoma Center for Geroscience. Join our0 broad effort to better understand the aging process, reduce disease and improve quality of life as we all get older.

View our leadership team and find OU Health geroscience clinical faculty.

Contact us to learn how you can partner with OU Health Oklahoma Center for Geroscience.

National Funding Support for Oklahoma

Oklahoma Center for Geroscience is funded in part by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

Donate Now

Add your contribution to support discoveries that promote healthy aging.

Donate time or money to Oklahoma Center for Geroscience to support the research and clinical services that help everyone better understand the aging process and address age-related diseases.