October 7, 1974--The National Institute on Aging was established.

January 8, 1975--The Implementation Plan for P.L. 93-296 was submitted to the assistant secretary for health.

April 23, 1975--First meeting of the National Advisory Council on Aging was held.

July 1, 1975--The Adult Development and Aging Branch and Gerontology Research Center were separated from their parent institute to become the core of the National Institute on Aging.

December 8, 1976--The research plan required by P.L. 93-296 was transmitted to the Congress.

September 20, 1982--NIA Laboratory of Neurosciences Clinical Program admitted the first inpatient to a new unit at the NIH Clinical Center.

September 9-11, 1983--The institute marked the 25th anniversary of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The first volunteers joined this unique study in 1958.

1984-- NIA funded Alzheimer's Disease Centers around the country where researchers at medical institutions work to cure and prevent this disorder, while improving care and diagnosis.

November 14, 1986--P.L. 99-660, section 951-952, authorized the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center as a part of a broad program to conduct research and distribute information about Alzheimer's disease to health professionals, patients and their families, and the general public.

September 6, 1988--Dr. Gene Cohen assumed the permanent position of NIA deputy director.

November 4, 1988--P.L. 100-607 established the Geriatric Research and Training Centers (GRTC).

1988--Congress authorized NIA to make LEAD awards to researchers who had made significant contributions to Alzheimer's disease research.

1990--The GRTCs were expanded and renamed the Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Centers and charged with conducting research in diseases that threaten independent living.

1993--Six Edward Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology were authorized to convert research findings into programs that improve the lives of older people and their families.

NIA funded six Exploratory Centers for Minority Aging and Health Promotion in collaboration with the NIH Office of Research on Minority Health.

1994--Nine demography of aging centers were funded to provide research on health, economics, and aging to make more effective use of data from several national surveys of health, retirement, and long-term care.

1995--Three Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging were established to further the study of the basic processes of aging.

Dr. Hodes was appointed NIA director on May 27, 1993. He was born on December 31, 1943, in New York City. He received his B.A. from Yale University (summa cum laude) in 1965 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School (magna cum laude) in 1971.

His postgraduate training included an internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital department of medicine. Before attending medical school, he was a research fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Prior to joining NIA, Dr. Hodes was senior investigator and chief of the immune regulation section at NCI's Experimental Immunology Branch.

He is program coordinator for the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program and serves in editorial capacities at the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the Journal of Immunology, and Therapeutic Immunology. He received the PHS Commendation Medal in 1977 and the PHS Outstanding Service Medal in 1988.

TheLongitudinal Studies Branch is responsible for the management and operation of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) and scientists in the branch conduct research using both historical and currently collected data. First, historical datasets in many areas are used to model group and individual patterns of aging. Second, new BLSA research is planned and implemented on the most promising findings. Examples include new research in prostate aging and disease, hearing, strength, cerebro-vascular aging, and age-associated changes in functional ability.

The BLSA is a primary and unique resource of the intramural program. Nearly 600 volunteer men, ranging in age from 20 to 96 years, come to the center every 2 years and undergo 2½ days of extensive clinical, biochemical, and psychological tests. A women’s program, initiated in 1978, has over 550 participants, helping scientists make important comparisons of sex differences across the life span.

Recently a cohort of women 45 to 55 years of age has been added to allow analysis of the perimenopausal period. A minority cohort is being added for studies relevant to hypertension, prostate cancer, heart disease, and other factors affecting health and survival.

Scientists in theLaboratory of Clinical Physiology conduct research emphasizing the physiological changes that occur throughout the entire adult life span. Studies include quantification of age changes, elucidation of mechanisms underlying these changes, and the relation between aging processes and specific disease states. There are specific programs to study endocrine and metabolic systems, especially growth and sex hormones, glucose and insulin homeostasis, bone and the immune system.

TheLaboratory of Behavioral Sciences applies behavior analysis methodology to investigate mechanisms mediating the development of selected disorders of aging and to facilitate their prevention and remediation. Studies in the behavioral medicine section are concerned with interactions of stress and salt intake in blood pressure regulation and the development of hypertension. The focus is on effects of hypercapnic breathing on mechanisms of cell sodium regulation. In addition, behavioral nursing research is concerned with prevention of falls and hip fracture, and with relationships between incontinence, urinary tract infection, and hypertension. Studies in the behavioral physiology section are concerned with the effects of low and high ambient temperature on plasma volume, blood pressure, and other cardiovascular measures, and with the diurnal variation in cardiovascular response to thermoregulatory behavior.

TheLaboratory of Personality and Cognition (LPC) conducts research on individual differences in psychosocial and intellectual functioning with aging and their influence on health and adaptation. LPC researchers are actively engaged in dispelling myths on aging, personality, and health, and have contributed new insights about the stresses faced by aging adults, the methods and strategies used by them to cope, and the effectiveness of their coping efforts. The LPC also conducts research on early markers of Alzheimer's disease as well as cognitive performance and aging, emphasizing the psychological mechanisms underlying age-related changes in memory, learning, and reasoning.

Researchers in theResearchers Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology conduct studies at the cellular and molecular levels to assess basic mechanisms of aging that affect physiologic function. Included are studies on signal transduction, structural biology, stress responses, gene expression, oxygen radicals and mechanisms of neurodegener-ation. Manipulations, such as diet, exercise, pharmacological/endocrinological and genetic interventions, are examined.

Laboratory of Biological Chemistry investigators conduct research in neurobiology in such areas as molecular neuropath-ology, mechanisms of cell death, neurotrophic factors, and molecular biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease. Other researchers focus on cell biology, including development of models to measure capacity of bone to regenerate, the study of aging cartilage and bone, mitochondrial defects, and the relation between cancer and aging.

TheLaboratory of Molecular Genetics (LMG) is investigating the molecular basis for aging and age-dependent diseases, notably cancer. Studies are focused on DNA- related mechanisms such as genomic instability, DNA repair, DNA replication and transcription. The increased levels of DNA damage that have been observed with aging may be due to changes in DNA repair. A special interest is in the fine structure of DNA repair and the DNA repair processes in individual genes. Molecular mechanisms are being investigated and changes in the mechanisms with aging are studied.

The overall goals of theLaboratory of Cardiovascular Science are 1) to identify age-associated changes that occur within the cardiovascular system and to determine the mechanisms for these changes; 2) to study myocardial structure and function and to determine how age interacts with chronic disease states to alter function; 3) to study basic mechanisms in excitation-contraction coupling and how these are modulated by surface receptor signaling pathways in cardiac muscle; 4) to determine the chemical nature and sequence of intermediate reactions controlling movement of ions through ionic channels and pumps in myocardium; 5) to determine behavioral aspects of hypertension; 6) to determine normal and abnormal function of vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells; and 7) to establish potentials and limitations of new therapies such as gene transfer.

In meeting these objectives, studies are performed in human volunteers, intact animals, isolated heart and vascular tissues, isolated cardiac and vascular cells, and subcellular organelles.

Investigators in the Laboratory of Neurosciences (LNS) study the function and structure of the central nervous system in relation to neurodegenerative and developmental disorders. Basic studies involve brain phospholipid metabolism during neuroplas-ticity and functional activation, and blood-brain barrier transport and drug delivery.

Studies in the cerebral metabolism section deal with research on animal models related to human aging and disease, as well as collaborative efforts with the brain aging and dementia section, which operates an eight-bed patient care unit at the NIH Clinical Center. Physicians, pharmacologists, and physiologists work together on clinical brain imaging studies using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance. Recent studies demonstrated that early metabolic deficits can be detected in brains of participants with a single memory disorder, pre-saging the later development of Alzheimer’s dementia. Simulation PET studies have shown that metabolic deficits in Alzheimer’s disease can be partially reversed with appropriate cognitive tests.

Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry Program. This program collects and evaluates data on health and illness in the older population. The intramural scientific research carried out by EDBP staff is supplemented by research contracts, interagency agreements, and numerous working arrangements with Federal and non-Federal organizations. Basic information is generated on current and projected health, and social status of older people.

A multicenter, prospective study of 14,000 older Americans entitled “Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly” (EPESE) was initiated in 1980 to prospectively evaluate social, behavioral and environmental factors related to morbidity and mortality. A public use version of the EPESE baseline dataset for all four sites, as well as followup data from three sites, was made available to investigators in the U.S. The EPESE serves as a primary resource for a broad variety of epidemiologic studies of the elderly, including minorities.

The Women's Health and Aging Study was launched in 1991 as a comprehensive study of functional decline in older women with moderate to severe disability. The 5-year effort, being conducted under a contract awarded to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will closely follow about 1,000 women to evaluate changes in physical status over a 3-year study period. Other factors, such as mortality and use of long-term care, are being evaluated.

In 1991 the EDBP started the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. A complex cross-national study, the research focuses on people already participating in the Honolulu Heart Program, an ongoing prospective study of cardiovascular diseases of American men ages 70 to 90 of Japanese ancestry. The aging study has use of the heart program participants as a resource for research on dementia and to compare results with those generated by parallel studies in other Asian-ancestry populations. Research has shown important differences between the Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii and in Japan. These studies provide clues as to the genetic and lifestyle components.

The Veterans Study of Memory in Aging was initiated in 1994 with Duke University. The project has recruited 3,000 U.S. Navy veterans who served 1944-45. Half of these men suffered closed head injury with loss of consciousness in 1944-45 and possibly at other times in their lives; the other half suffered no such head injury. Based upon cognitive screening, researchers will retrospectively study the association between head trauma with Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative dementias.

Progressive loss of muscle mass, or sarcopenia, has been hypothesized to be a common pathway by which multiple diseases contribute to disability. EDBP initiated the “Dynamics of Health, Aging and Body Composition” (HEALTH ABC) study to characterize the extent of loss of muscle mass in older men and women, identify clinical conditions accelerating the loss of muscle, and examine the health impact of loss of muscle on strength, endurance, disability, and diseases common in old age. Approximately 3,000 men and women, ages 70-79, half of whom are African American, are followed for 7 years for new onset of physical disability. The HEALTH ABC will provide invaluable information on optimal timing for interventions to prevent or reverse muscle loss and on high-risk groups most likely to benefit.

The EDB program supported the collection and analysis of data on cause of death and characteristics of the last year of life in the 1993 National Mortality Followback Survey (NMFS) conducted by NCHS, CDC. This survey supplements information from death certificates in the vital statistics file with information on characteristics of the decedent featuring an over sampling of centenarian decedents. Agreements are in place with the SSA and HCFA to link the NMFS data with administrative records from those two agencies. Analytic plans call for a joint effort in the production of a report on life and death amongst the oldest of the old.

Other areas of interest include disability and physical function; hip fracture and osteoporosis; heart disease; dementia; sleep disturbance; hearing and vision disorders; methodologic issues in aging research; and cross-cultural and international studies of aging and the diseases of aging.

The cardiovascular/pulmonary/renal program area develops and supports research on problems such as alterations in blood pressure regulation with age isolated systolic hypertension orthostatic hypotension aging changes in the microcirculation age-associated alterations in the composition of arteries and the effect of these alterations on cardiovascular function age-related change in quality, quantity, and function of the myocardium and the conduction system of the heart and changes with age in kidney and pulmonary function.

The centers program includes the support of the Claude Pepper Older American Independence Centers.

The endocrinology program area encourages and supports research aimed at providing an understanding of the age-related changes in endocrine function, including menopause, the mechanisms underlying these changes, and the impact of these changes on other physiologic systems.

The geriatric research and training program area supports clinical research on disorders that are concentrated predominately among older people or that are associated with increased morbidity and mortality in the elderly. In addition to these specific clinical problems, the program also addresses the lack of research on clinical problems in nursing homes and other sites of long-term care for the elderly. Another mission is to attract new investigators to the field of aging and to further the development of active investigators in clinical medicine and biomedical research.

The infectious diseases program area supports research on the relationship of physiologic changes associated with age or chronic disease to susceptibility to infections. Other priorities include new strategies for evaluating vaccine efficacy in the elderly, potential prophylactic techniques for infections in the elderly, age-related changes in the effects of stresses such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and infection on granulopoiesis and lymphopoiesis, age-related changes in circulating levels of amyloid proteins and effects of amyloid deposition, and the interaction of aging and processes of carcinogenesis.

The mission of the musculoskeletal program area is to develop and support basic and clinical research on age-related changes in function of bone, muscle and cartilage. The program supports research on risk factors, prevention and treatment of falls, gait disorders and hip fractures in the elderly, as well as research on osteoarthritis, and urinary incontinence.

The nutrition, gastroenterology, and metabolism program area develops and supports basic and clinical research on effects of nutritional factors throughout the life span on longevity and age-associated morbidity assessment of nutritional status in the elderly effects of aging on nutrient digestion, absorption, and utilization and the contribution of nutritional status to the etiology and pathogenesis of diseases prevalent in the elderly.

The osteoporosis program supports basic and clinical research to identify age-associated processes which contribute to bone loss and osteoporosis markers and risk factors that are related to changes in bone mass, bone competence and the predisposition to falls and strategies based on modifying or reversing these processes. NIA especially emphasizes research on osteoporosis in advanced age, when the consequences, particularly those of hip fracture, become more severe and result in escalating morbidity and mortality.

The Geriatrics Program has begun an area of concentration--the Integration of Aging and Cancer Research. This aging/cancer interface focuses on age-related changes that contribute to increased cancer incidence and mortality in older persons; time and its importance to development of cancer during a person's lifespan; agressive tumor behavior in the context of the aged host; effects of age and aging on antitumor drugs; and impact of previous illnesses, disabilities, and degenerative conditions.

Etiologic insights acquired from the development of multiple primary tumors in the elderly are of special interest. Research on tumors that primarily affect older persons (e.g., breast, prostate, colon, lung, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) are of importance.

The goal of the program is to produce a scientific knowledge base which--by informing professional practice, public policy, and everyday life--can maximize people’s health, effective functioning, independence, and well-being in their middle and later years. In order to explain the wide diversity among older people, it encourages comparisons between males and females persons with differing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic background and inhabitants of countries that vary in styles and standards of living.

Special attention is given to studies of the oldest old (those age 85 and over), one of the fastest growing segments of the population. Of special concern is the care of Alzheimer’s disease patients and their families. Emphasis is also placed on many kinds of interventions that can prevent, postpone, or reverse such decrements of old age as chronic ill health, sense of incompetence, memory loss, functional disability, or withdrawal from active participation in social and economic roles.

Adult Psychological Development (APD) supports research concerned with behavioral and social mechanisms and processes influencing cognitive and intellectual functioning, personality, attitudes, and interpersonal relationships over the adult life course. An emphasis is placed on research relevant to maintaining and improving well-being, independence, and effective functioning. Research is needed for seeking out the conditions under which age-related individual changes occur or do not occur, and for supplying information to use in the design of roles and environments that can utilize the special strengths of middle-age and older people and that can maintain and enhance their functioning. The two sections included are: cognitive functioning and aging and personality and social psychological aging.

Social Science Research on Aging (SSR) aims to understand the social and environmental conditions influencing health, well-being, and functioning of people in their middle and later years. Its two sections focus respectively on the dynamic processes linking health, behavior, and aging and on those linking social structures with behaviors, attitudes, health, and status of older people. Both sections are concerned with social and behavioral factors in health and functioning and with assessment and testing of planned and natural interventions for health promotion/disease prevention.

Special attention is given to research on aging and health care, especially such issues in long-term care as: family structures and relationships affecting provision of home care, and interventions to prevent the need for long-term care (e.g., injury prevention and control). Particular emphasis is placed on studies of long-term care of Alzheimer’s disease patients and their families in line with the NIA initiative. This program also encompasses social science research on two other institute-wide initiatives: gender, health, and longevity, and minority health. The three sections included are: behavioral geriatrics research, health care organizations and older people in society.

Demography and Population Epidemiology (DPE) supports research and training on the dynamics and consequences of population aging, and aims to describe and understand the changing elderly population in terms of its social, demographic, economic, health, and functional characteristics, and the impact of these changes on society as a whole.

DPE also coordinates policy on aging-related statistical data within the NIA and across other institutes at NIH as well as with other relevant Federal agencies. The Office on Demography of Aging is located in the DPE/BSR, the focal point for coordinating demographic and economic research within NIA. The demography office is also the center of activity for the Federal forum of aging-related statistics, a group which serves a similar function in coordinating research government-wide. DPE’s three sections are: health and retirement economics, demography of aging, and population epidemiology.