Effects of Gene-Social Environment Interplay on Health and Behavior in Later Life (R01)

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Purpose. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) invites R01 applications for the development of multidisciplinary collaborations among existing longitudinal twin and family studies, with a focus on social and behavioral factors associated with aging outcomes. This FOA is intended to lay the foundation for future studies of the role of gene-environment interplay in accounting for links between social experiences and physical health, functionality, and psychological well-being in midlife and older age. Of particular interest are applications that can embed this foundation within a lifespan perspective. Applicants are encouraged to use this FOA as a starting point for (1) developing collaborations among existing data sets, (2) harmonizing social phenotypes across a number of twin and family studies, (3) conducting analyses aimed at further refining social phenotypes for genetic analysis, (4) using animal models of gene-social environment interplay to inform work using twin studies and/or (5) establishing preliminary data on the feasibility of genetic/genomic approaches that could be applied to questions of how social experiences are biologically embedded and influence middle and later life outcomes. Use of existing data is strongly encouraged; funds from this award are not intended for new data collection, but a small percentage of funds may be used for adding modules to ongoing data collection efforts to augment phenotypic or genetic data.

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