The funding will support a five-year initiative to expand aging-focused clinical trials aimed at improving quality of life for older adults
Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, and the University of Southern California have received a $6.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Aging to establish a Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center in Los Angeles.
The funding will support a five-year initiative to expand aging-focused clinical trials aimed at improving quality of life for older adults, joining a national network of 15 research institutions.
The Los Angeles Pepper Center will concentrate on extending healthspan—the period of life free from chronic diseases that impair independence—by exploring interventions targeting biological aging processes. Researchers plan to translate these findings into practical clinical care. Sara Espinoza, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Center for Translational Geroscience, will lead the effort, calling it a chance to broaden geroscience research locally and globally with evidence-based aging guidance.
The collaboration leverages the combined expertise of the three institutions, a strength highlighted by Pinchas Cohen, MD, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and co-director of the center. “This partnership allows us to accelerate breakthroughs that can directly improve quality of life for older adults,” Cohen said.
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projecting that nearly 25% of the U.S. population will be 65 or older by 2060, the need to address age-related chronic diseases is pressing. Scientists aim to intervene at the biological level to prevent or delay multiple conditions simultaneously. Jonathan Wanagat, MD, PhD, a UCLA geriatrician and co-director, emphasized the center’s commitment to tackling aging health challenges for current and future generations.
The center’s four key goals include advancing gerotherapeutics—drugs targeting cellular aging—expanding the researcher base, increasing clinical trials, and disseminating translational geroscience findings.
