We sat with Dilip V. Jeste, MD,
Senior Associate Dean of Healthy
Aging and Senior Care and Director
of the Stein Institue for Research on Aging and the Center for Healthy Aging at
UC San Diego to talk about his research and how private donors can promote
successful aging.
Why
invest in
research
on aging?
The world is
aging rapidly.
While people
are living
longer, which
is a good thing,
they’re also
increasingly
battling chronic illnesses and making decisions
about their health for which we are not prepared. However, we are still
at the beginning of the journey to discovery.
With adequate knowledge and education,
we could make successful aging a norm
for everyone.
How is the work at
the center unique?
Our researchers have discovered a staggering
amount of information about aging over
the past decades, including groundbreaking
studies in accelerated and successful aging
from genetics to mental health. Some of our
recent initiatives include cutting-edge robotics,
wearable, Fitbit-like monitors, and work
on improving senior housing. Our findings
have been published in the most prestigious
peer-review journals, and there’s rarely a
week when our research is not featured in
the media.
How is the center
making a difference?
We began witnessing a new era in the
approach to aging, and it’s been set due
in part to the many studies and programs
that we’ve spearheaded. As we learned
more about the factors that make people
age successfully, we have gone beyond
understanding the basic biology of aging
alone and extended our focus to include
questions like: Do you age in place or move
to a senior community? Or what do you
do to be more resilient and optimistic as
research shows that these traits lead to
longevity? Another exciting accomplishment
is that we are slowly witnessing a change in
the perceptions about aging. For years, we
have been explaining that older adults, with
their wisdom, are a wonderful resource for
the whole society. We are slowly seeing
this message become more and more
widely expected—a ray of hope that needs
much work.
How can philanthropy help?
There are a number of ways through
which private donations can make a tremendous
impact. One such example is the
Healthy Aging Initiative’s Seed Grant
Program. This granting program enables
multidisciplinary projects that lack standard
funding streams. Only this year, we received
eighty extraordinary proposals aiming to
help decipher common diseases related to
aging. Due to limited funding, we were able
to support only ten projects. Your dollars
could help us extend this important program
and fund some of the best and brightest
researchers in the world.
Another example of how we could
use private support is one of our most
promising ongoing projects, Successful
AGing Evaluation (SAGE) study. SAGE is
the only large-scale study of successful
aging that considers the impact of positive
psychological traits, such as resilience and
wisdom, in addition to biological factors,
providing a much more complete picture
of older adults. The study findings were widely described in the media. Now, it is
time to add genomics and microbiome arms
of the study—and this is how your dollars
could be used.
Your gift to the UC San Diego
Center for Healthy Aging and Stein
Institute for Research on Aging
will allow us to help everyone lead
longer and healthier lives. Every
gift makes a difference. Small gifts
pooled together or made annually
can achieve big results. A special
gift to support a particular program
helps us to move our mission forward.
Please join our efforts today
by supporting our programs with a
charitable gift.
HOW YOUR GIFT CAN HELP
• $25,000 funds an aging-related pilot
project for a junior faculty member.
• $10,000 funds a research project for a
postdoctoral fellow.
• $5,000 supports a graduate student for
one quarter.
• $3,000 funds the filming of one
public lecture.
• $2,500 funds one issue of
our newsletter.
• $500 funds twenty-five participants in
our successful aging study.
• $350 funds a high school student
for a week, including a stipend and
all supplies.