PROJECT SUMMARY
The NIA Interventions Testing Program (ITP) is a multi-institutional study investigating interventions with the
potential to extend lifespan and delay disease or dysfunction in mice. Interventions are tested in parallel at three
sites (The Jackson Laboratory, University of Michigan, and University of Texas) using identical standardized
protocols. Such treatments include pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, foods, dietary supplements, plant extracts,
hormones, peptides, amino acids, chelators, redox agents, and other compounds or mixtures of compounds. We
propose to advance the Mouse Phenome Database (MPD) in response to emerging needs of the aging research
community, specifically the ITP, to continue being a Data Coordinating Center (DCC) that curates ITP data,
makes it available through a public database, and provides tools that enable users to visualize, analyze, and
download the primary and summary data from these studies. Our objectives are to provide a central repository
for data, documentation, and protocols, offering a unique and important venue for ITP investigators needing to
make their data public; to continually refine and develop tools and features to best locate, present, and analyze
those datasets; and to maintain, enhance, and promote this resource to further enable quantitative, standardized
and predictive phenotype studies and, in turn facilitate new scientific advances in the field of aging. We have
designed a publicly accessible website and data repository for the ITP. We have also curated and posted data
from numerous ITP studies. ITP plans for the next five years include additional lifespan trials, detailed analyses
of agents found to increase lifespan, and continued growth in data on health outcomes. To help support these
goals, our specific aims are to: 1) maintain information on experimental designs, protocols, and SOPs, 2) create,
maintain, and update a publicly accessible electronic inventory of samples in the Interventions Biospecimens
Repository (IBR), 3) coordinate data collection among the three ITP Centers and members of the research
community conducting focused, ancillary studies on specific interventions, 4) provide a statistical core for
independent analysis of data collected by ITP, 5) implement interactive and dynamic visualization tools for
statistical analyses and data reuse, and 6) maintain a public-access interactive website and machine accessible
data repository for ITP. Successful completion of our Aims will yield a widely useful and sustainable system for
public access to experimental details and analysis of ITP data. The resource will have a modern interactive
environment and expose the data for many applications that support replication, extension, and interpretation of
ITP studies in the context of lifespan, health span, and disease biology research. This will help maximize the
value of these data and provide the traceability and reproducibility required for extension and translation of the
outcomes of ITP testing.