title: The Geropathology Research Network: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Integrating Pathology Into Research on Aging.
abstract: Geropathology is the study of aging and age-related lesions and diseases in the form of whole necropsies/autopsies, surgical biopsies, histology, and molecular biomarkers. It encompasses multiple subspecialties of geriatrics, anatomic pathology, molecular pathology, clinical pathology, and gerontology. In order to increase the consistency and scope of communication in the histologic and molecular pathology assessment of tissues from preclinical and clinical aging studies, a Geropathology Research Network has been established consisting of pathologists and scientists with expertise in the comparative pathology of aging, the design of aging research studies, biostatistical methods for analysis of aging data, and bioinformatics for compiling and annotating large sets of data generated from aging studies. The network provides an environment to promote learning and exchange of scientific information and ideas for the aging research community through a series of symposia, the development of uniform ways of integrating pathology into aging studies, and the statistical analysis of pathology data. The efforts of the network are ultimately expected to lead to a refined set of sentinel biomarkers of molecular and anatomic pathology that could be incorporated into preclinical and clinical aging intervention studies to increase the relevance and productivity of these types of investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle. wladiges@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Warren
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ladiges
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ikeno
authors.affiliation: Department of Metabolism and Aging, Scripps Florida, Jupiter.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Niedernhofer
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Georgia Regents University, Augusta.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: McIndoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle.
authors.forename: Marcia A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ciol
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.
authors.forename: Jerry
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ritchey
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle.
authors.forename: Denny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liggitt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research; D019295:Computational Biology; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D010336:Pathology / Q000639:trends*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: Aging; Geropathology; Geropathology Research Network; Health span.; Healthy aging; Histopathology; Life-span; Molecular pathology