Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Epidemiology;
Investigator meeting
Translational Collaboration
Steven Cummings, M.D. University of California, San
Francisco
Dr. Cummings presented his thoughts on translational
collaborations and his history with these endeavors. Through his work as a principle investigator
of the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study (an NIH funded cohort) he has
been instrumental in leading the Longevity Consortium – a number of cohorts
studying the genetics of longevity and aging.
Dr. Cummings emphasized that collaborations are nothing more than
relationships; and they are tough and they take work. When scientists from different disciplines
are brought together they must overcome differing views on experimental design
and funding priorities as well as different languages. Epidemiologists, basic scientists, and
statisticians do not speak the same language and they need to understand each
other. Dr. Cummings sees future
mechanistic studies with basic scientist resulting from these consortia. Another point of emphasis of the talk was the
need to find/have alternative funding.
One example of private funding sources is Calico; a Google company
established in 2013 for the purpose of identifying drugs to extend
longevity. Calico will fund a ‘super’
cohort of >5000 participants over the age of 95. The two take home messages from this talk
were: 1) Translational collaboration involves hard work on relationships; and
2) There is a funding shift to private sources and there are funds available,
Dr. Cummings cited the Nature 2012 article entitled “Alternative funding:
Sponsor my science”.
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