The overall goal of the Duke Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (Duke OAIC) is to support research and training that improves the independence of older Americans. Our primary focus is understanding and optimizing reserve and resilience.
Our approach is founded on the insight that independence in older adults is related to an individual’s ability to withstand or recover from functional decline following acute or chronic health stressors.
Our overall strategy for the OAIC is to serve as a sustained resource to our investigators through a broad range of training and research studies; the goal will be to address knowledge gaps in our focus with an emphasis on translational and interdisciplinary research. We recruit and develop early stage investigators in aging research related to our focus and utilize the substantial strengths of the Duke academic and health system environment to advance our focus.
Our goals are accomplished through the synergistic activities of the:
- Leadership and Administration Core (LAC)
- Research Education Component (REC)
- Pilot/Exploratory Studies Core (PESC)
- Resource Cores:
- Molecular Measures Core (MMC)
- Health and Mobility Measures Core (HMC)
- Analysis Core (AC).