Research Resources

NIA supports a multi-institutional study investigating pharmacological interventions that might extend lifespan or healthspan using diverse species and strains of Caenorhabditis. This approach leverages the genetic diversity within this genus to examine robustness of interventions. The CITP allows investigators to submit proposals for interventions to be tested for their ability to decelerate aging and extend lifespan. Please visit the CITP web page.

To facilitate aging research on cells in culture, the NIA provides support for the NIA Aging Cell Repository, located at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden, NJ. Included are skin fibroblast cultures from individuals with premature aging syndromes, including Werner and Hutchinson-Guilford (progeria), cultures from clinically documented and at-risk individuals from families exhibiting familial Alzheimer's disease, differentiated cell lines, and cell lines from animals. The repository also has DNA from many of the cell lines, available individually or in panels such as the Primate DNA panel, Aging Syndrome DNA panel, Characterized Alzheimer's disease mutation DNA panel, Early and Late Onset Alzheimer's disease DNA panels, and Aged Sib Pairs DNA panel.

This webpage describes a network of NIA grantees willing to share resources that support comparative biology of aging studies.

NIA supports studies of human aging that have collections of biospecimens available for sharing. The Virtual Repository is a website that provides a central portal to these studies, with introductory information on participating studies.

NIA supports a multi-institutional study investigating diets and dietary supplements purported to extend lifespan and delay disease and dysfunction. ITP allows investigators to submit proposals for interventions to be tested for their ability to decelerate aging and extend lifespan in mice.

NIA maintains approximately 150 nonhuman primates (Macaca mulatta) at three regional primate centers for conducting research on aging for NIA funded scientists. These animals range in age from 18 to 35 years. Please contact Dr. Manuel Moro for additional information.

The Nonhuman Primate Tissue Bank provides a source of archived tissue from aged nonhuman primates, primarily rhesus monkeys. The tissue is donated by primate centers and universities with primate colonies and is available as frozen tissue chunks, slides of fixed tissue sections, and OTC-embedded frozen tissues.

The NIA supports the Primate Aging Database (PAD), a searchable database that contains basic health and husbandry data from primates across the lifespan and from numerous research institutions. PAD, hosted by the Wisconsin National Primate Center, is a password-secured site. For information, go to http://ipad.primate.wisc.edu.

NIA maintains colonies of aged rats and mice for use by the scientific community for research directly related to aging and age-related diseases. The animals are housed behind specific pathogen-free barriers and monitored for genetic purity and health status, and a health report accompanies each shipment of animals. In addition, NIA supports a tissue bank of flash-frozen tissues from mice and rats from the aged rodent colonies and tissue arrays containing punches of multiple ages and multiple tissues per slide. Please note that there are restrictions on eligibility to use the NIA aged rodent colonies.

• Aged Rodent Colonies Handbook
• Aged Rodent Tissue Bank Handbook
• Oldest Ages Available in NIA Aged Rodent Colonies
• Rodent and Tissue Bank Resources Information

The Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR) provides high quality, next-generation sequencing, genotyping, and supporting statistical genetics services for qualifying NIH-funded investigators seeking to identify genes that contribute to human health and disease. NIA is one of 10 member institutes at NIH that support the CIDR program. Both intramural and extramural investigators may apply for access to CIDR services through a competitive, peer-reviewed process. Information about the CIDR program and how to apply for CIDR services is available.

The NIA sponsors the Investigational New Drug (IND) Toxicology program to identify compounds for use in symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases. The program provides toxicology services to academic and small business investigators who believe they have promising compounds for the treatment or prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, but lack the resources to perform the required toxicology studies. NIA will give investigators access to toxicological evaluations required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of requests for IND designations for clinical studies. NIA hopes this preclinical drug-development program will expand the potential range of drug therapies for Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases by making these resources available to a larger and more diverse group of investigators.

SRI International provides services for this program in four general categories:

1. analytical chemistry,
2. pharmacokinetics and bioavailability,
3. preliminary toxicity screens, and
4. IND-directed toxicology studies, including safety pharmacology.

AlzPED is a publicly available, searchable, data resource that aims to increase the transparency, reproducibility and translatability of preclinical efficacy studies of candidate therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease. AlzPED is designed as a knowledge platform for the dissemination of data and analysis to scientists, from academic centers, industry, disease-focused foundations, in a manner that promotes efficiency, transparency, reproducibility and accuracy of research aimed at preclinical therapy development for AD. AlzPED provides quick access and visibility to integrated preclinical efficacy data from published and unpublished studies. Visit the AlzPED website.