Building networks and community around aging research (Leanne Jones and Saul Villeda of the Bakar Aging Research Institute)

Earlier this year, the University of California San Francisco launched the Bakar Aging Research Institute (BARI), a scientific community that aims to translate breakthroughs in aging research across many disciplines into new approaches and treatments that help people remain healthy and vibrant in later life. Here to tell us about the Institute are Professor Leanne Jones, who moved from UCLA to UCSF to serve as Director of BARI, and Associate Professor and Associate Director of BARI, Saul Villeda. Today Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda join host Chris Patil to discuss the mission and structure of the Institute, as well as their goal to bring people from different campuses together to push forward the field of aging research as a whole.

Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda talk about the collaborative culture at UCSF, lowering barriers to resources across disciplines, and what inspired the idea behind the Institute. They explain how they plan to foster communication between basic scientists, clinicians, and healthcare workers to enhance translational medicine, as well as the pathway to commercialization for BARI, and the value of building a community around improving human health together. Finally, Chris asks Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda about the greatest challenges they’ve had to overcome in starting the Institute, their top priorities moving forward, and what they’re most excited to achieve through BARI over the next five to ten years.

Episode Highlights:

• Mission and structure of the Bakar Aging Research Institute (BARI)
• Responsibilities and benefits of membership in the institute 
• Connecting researchers across campuses 
• Network creation and community creation
• Spirit of community will help attract other institutions to collaborate
• Providing central resources and lowering barriers to research
• What inspired the Institute and founding vision of Barbara Bakar
• How BARI will enhance and promote translational medicine, translational applications
• Improving communication amongst scientists, clinicians, and healthcare workers who are interested in treating problems related to aging
• QB3 is a University of California hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science
• Path to commercialization for BARI
• Value of communicating with the community and including everyone in the conversation about improving human health
• Biggest challenges Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda have had to overcome in getting BARI started
• Building a tangible community through a hybrid system of virtual/in-person interactions
• Top priorities moving forward and what they hope BARI will achieve in the next five to ten years
• Investing in the community and helping people jumpstart their research programs (e.g., Sandler Fellows Program)

Quotes:

“Our mission is broad, and really focused on building networks and community around aging. And, as we've said, improving the outcomes for older adults.”

“It's exciting to think that our original vision of bringing people together from across all of the campuses is really coming to fruition.”

“The requirement is that you're a full-time faculty member or equivalent at UCSF, and membership brings an ability to have first priority for funding opportunities, as well as the core resources that we're building up currently.”

“What we quickly realized is that there are a lot of existing resources that people just don't know about. There was no centralized place, where you could just send an email and say, Hey, is anyone in Geriatrics...collecting blood from aging people?”

“That's really one of the main things I think that people will get out of this - it's sort of a central place where you can make connections to facilitate and push your research forward.”

“We really took it on as our charge to provide all of these resources for the community at UCSF, so that there's really lowering of any barrier to do the type of research that's related to the biology of aging, and also health span, and improvement of health ultimately, within the community.”

“We're starting locally. But hopefully, we'll have an impact beyond the UCSF campuses soon.”

“Really, I think that's the essence of the entire Institute is this idea of community.”

“Here we have an institution where everyone is so close to each other, they have all the expertise, that just by building a series of bridges, I think we'll have an entire roadmap from beginning to end.”

“We are improving the ability of everyone to take their discoveries, and hopefully have a much wider and a much more long lasting impact.”

“We're really leveraging some of these resources to both facilitate questions that people have wanted to ask for a long time, but maybe didn't feel that they have the support to do it.”

“We decided then that an institute would be the best way to sort of transfer this idea of community in a very tangible way across UCSF.”

“In terms of infrastructure, we're trying to already lay the groundwork for setting up a program to do translational studies.”

“We've got basic biologists, clinicians talking already, we are providing resources and funding for collaborative studies between these groups. And we're trying to go ahead and think about how we can provide a framework for translational neuroscience at UCSF.”

“UCSF is a public university, and our mission is human health. And we want to be able to interact with and connect with the community.”

“One thing that worked in our favor was actually the fact that we have been virtual for almost two years now, and that facilitated a number of town halls.”

“What I'm really hopeful that we will be able to do is to be a place where an individual can come to get a personalized plan for improving their health or for maintaining their health.”

“Every time you bring in someone new, it changes the landscape. So that makes me excited.”

“I have no doubt the seeds that we are planting and sowing right now will really prove to be fruitful in the next five years.”

Links:

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BIOAGE Labs Website BIOAGELabs.com

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BIOAGE Labs LinkedIn

Bakar Aging Research Institute (BARI) Website geroscience.ucsf.edu