DEFINING THE GENETICS OF EXCEPTIONAL HUMAN SURVIVAL - DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bradley J. Willcox, MD, MSc, will work under the mentorship of Drs. John Grove and J. David Curb at the Pacific Health Research Institute (PHRI) in Honolulu, HI. Dr. Curb is the Principal Investigator for the PacGen Study, which includes the Honolulu Heart Program (HHP) Family Studies, which will provide the research database for Dr. Willcox. Dr. Willcox's prior research involved work on environmental factors related to healthy aging, particularly diet, in elderly Japanese-Canadians. He pursued this work further in Okinawa, Japan, as a Co-Investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study (OCS). He subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, graduating with the Calgary Award for innovative research on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly Japanese. He completed his Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he began collaboration with the New England Centenarian Study (NECS) on the genetics of exceptional survival (ES). He is currently supported by a NIA pilot study on the genetics of ES in Okinawan centenarians. His career goal is to understand the gene-gene and gene-environment interactions that lead to phenotypic variations in exceptionally long-lived individuals. Of particular interest, is ES with minimal disease burden or "successful aging." Dr. Willcox will receive training via formal course work, practicum, seminars, and hands-on mentored research. With the assistance of his mentors, Dr. Willcox will develop an R01 proposal to add an international site in Okinawa, Japan, to a current U.S. genetic epidemiology network based at PHRI called the PacGen Network. This proposed study has three specific goals; 1) to help define the successful aging phenotype; 2) to generate hypotheses for etiological factors of the successful aging phenotype; and 3) the establishment of another PacGen cohort for future cross-national longitudinal studies of the genetic and non-genetic determinants of successful aging. The long-term goal is to compare cross-national survival characteristics of Okinawan-Japanese with other cohorts of exceptionally long-lived men and women, particularly the HHP in order to determine the etiological factors important for the successful aging phenotype. In addition, he will be expected to make annual presentations at national meetings as well as have 10 peer-reviewed, first author and 15-20 collaborative journal articles accepted for publication during the 5-year period.
