Geroscience of sex differences SCORE (GERO SCORE)

About This Grant

The USC Geroscience Specialized Center of Research Excellence on Sex Differences in Aging (GeroSCORE) aims to fill important gaps in our understanding of how biological, behavioral, and population level factors contribute to sex differences in aging. While it is well established that women tend to have higher life expectancy than men worldwide, the biological mechanisms that lead to these sex-based differences in longevity are unclear. Further, although women live longer than men, they also tend to do so in poorer health: in later life, women face higher rates of a number of age-related chronic and neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease. These shifts from early life protection to later life risk may be due to sex-specific processes, like menopause, that shape aging trajectories in distinct ways in men and women. The USC GeroSCORE will serve as a national hub to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how sex shapes aging by supporting multilevel and multidisciplinary research that examines sex differences in aging across multiple levels, from molecular biology to population health. We plan to realize this vision through a combination of activities including the work of three integrated but cross-disciplinary scientific research projects which interact in terms of health outcomes. The Center will also develop new research tools and resources through its Career Enhancement and Resource Support Cores that will help scientists better measure, analyze, and understand sex-based variations in aging. In addition, the Center will foster collaborations among researchers and provide training and educational opportunities to encourage a broader focus on sex differences in geroscience both within the Center and across the wider SCORE Consortium and research community. Through these activities the Center will accelerate discoveries in sexbased differences in key aging outcomes, including biological aging, brain health, physical and cognitive function, disability and disease, which will inform future health strategies to improve women’s health. The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology’s leadership in gerontology research, training, and education, along with its multidisciplinary approach, integrating basic, behavioral, and population-level science, offers a unique and timely opportunity to catalyze much needed research into characterizing and explaining sex differences in the aging process. The Center is led by a highly integrated multidisciplinary team of experts in aging and sex differences from biology, psychology, sociology, and demography who work across model organisms and methodological approaches. By leveraging our strengths in multidisciplinary geroscience research and education, the Center will contribute to the development of innovative research strategies, interventions, programs aimed at improving health outcomes for all aging populations.