Aging Research Network

The Social and Behavioral Interventions Working Group focuses broadly on population-tailored and codesigned interventions to support preventative healthy behaviors among older adults. This translational research group focuses on creating strategies that are specifically adapted to the unique needs, preferences, and cultural contexts of older adults to promote healthy behaviors. They develop interventions using collaborative approaches, engaging older adults as active participants in the design process alongside researchers to increase acceptability, relevance, and effectiveness. Tailored interventions address key factors such as physical activity, nutrition, medication adherence, and social engagement, considering age-related challenges like mobility limitations, cognitive decline, and social isolation.

PI: Andrew C. Pickett

Email oescue@iu.edu for more information.

The Comparative Models of Aging Working Group will investigate how chemical and social environments influence aging using a comparative approach across multiple animal species. The primary interest is in examining the independent and combined effects of anthropogenic pollutants (e.g., pesticides, flame retardants) and social interactions (e.g., aggression, affiliation, cognition) on aging in species such as primates, elephants, rodents, and fruit flies. By employing metabolomic analysis, the group will analyze, and compare across species, complex biological changes linked to aging, leveraging metabolic networks—associated with various age-related diseases—as a unifying measure to assess environmental impacts on aging.

PI: Jason Tennessen

Email oescue@iu.edu for more information.

The Language, Communication, and Cognition Working Group aims to develop innovative diagnostic tools for dementia and related neurological disorders that leverage linguistic/communication markers. Behavioral markers, such as language production and comprehension, present an accessible and cost-effective alternative to biological markers obtained through PET or CT scans, leading to earlier diagnosis and treatment. This group will develop diagnostic tools that emphasize the interaction between cognitive control and sentence- or discourse-level language abilities, with a focus on their relevance for diverse linguistic populations.

PI: Chien-Jer Charles Lin

Email oescue@iu.edu for more information.

The Care and Care Work Working Group focuses on informal caregiving, including intergenerational time and financial transfers, for older adults with chronic conditions, including neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, visual and hearing impairments, mobility limitations, and mental illnesses. This group is particularly interested in leveraging large national datasets to examine how informal caregiving networks of family and friends impact health care utilization, aging in place, and time to institutionalization. The long-term goal is to inform the development of interventions that improve care outcomes, reduce the economic burden on the health care system, and maximize quality of life for older adults with chronic conditions.

PI: Indrakshi Roy

Email oescue@iu.edu for more information.