NIA Director Richard Hodes (back left) speaks to clinicians and researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Feb. 1. (Photo by Nicolette Patete/Penn Institute on Aging)
In a rare visit to the University of Pennsylvania, National Institute on Aging Director Richard Hodes spoke highly of the university’s abundance of research collaborations and encouraged expansion in that format for future studies.
Dr. Hodes was on the Penn campus Feb. 1 to meet with researchers and clinicians working in the fields of aging, neuroscience, and immunology through a series of round-table discussions.
Penn clinicians stressed the importance they place on training the next generation of scientists and healthcare providers and creating pilot programs to fund the research of junior faculty members. Hodes said he applauds the abundance of collaborative research, like that conducted by the Penn Memory Center.
“I believe we presented Dr. Hodes with a close-up, in-depth look at a very broad and representative swath of all the aging and neuroscience research currently underway here at Penn that has the potential to influence our biological understanding of Alzheimer’s and related dementias now and into the future, and the clinical research and disease modifying therapies to help better treat, protect, and understand patients with AD and related dementias,” said Dr. John Trojanowski, director of the Penn Institute on Aging.