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UCLA Older Americans Independence Center
(Pepper Center)
Inflammatory Biology Core (IBC)
Core Leader:
Michael Irwin, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
300 Medical Plaza, Suite 3109
BOX 957076
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7076
Ph: 310-825-8281
Fax: 310-794-9247
Email: mirwin1@ucla.edu
Core co-leaders:
Steven Cole, PhD
Associate Professor of Hematology-Oncology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Email: coles@ucla.edu
Otoniel Martinez-Maza, PhD
Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Email: omartinez@mednet.ucla.edu
Inflammatory biology plays a central role in illness and disability among older people. The OAIC IBC at UCLA provides intellectual and technical support for the analysis of inflammatory dynamics in OAIC research programs. In addition to conventional blood-based measures of inflammatory markers, the IBC also provides extensive molecular biology infrastructure for mapping upstream signaling processes that cause aberrant inflammation, and for defining the down-stream impact of inflammatory signaling on target issues.
The OAIC IBC plans to generate new technical approaches for assessing molecular bases of inflammatory signaling during aging, measuring functional impacts of genetic polymorphisms, and monitoring the activity pro-inflammatory cytokines and hormones using genomics-based biomarkers. The OAIC IBC includes multi-disciplinary intellectual support (behavior, genetics, and immunology), vertical integration of inflammatory biology into the full range of research program development, training in molecular analyses of inflammation, and development of new strategies for assessing the sources and targets of inflammatory signals in aging individuals.
Support provided:
- Measures of circulating protein markers (e.g., cytokines, receptors)
- Cellular protein markers (e.g., intracellular cytokine production, cell surface expression of activation markers and cytokine receptors)
- Molecular assays of cytokine production (e.g., RT-PCR for cytokine mRNA and inflammatory response genes, DNA PCR for assessment of genetic polymorphisms influencing inflammatory biology)
- Genomic assessments of inflammatory activity and its cellular impact (e.g., DNA microarray assays for bioinformatic assessment of broad patterns of inflammatory gene activity, transcription factor assays for monitoring inflammatory signaling).
- Assessment of neuroendocrine parameters (e.g., cortisol, neuropeptides, catecholamines) and immune function (e.g., leukocyte subset enumeration, cytotoxicity assays, cell proliferation, antibody production).
Analysis/Cost-Effectiveness Core
Recruitment Core
Research Operations Core
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