Earlier this year, the University of California San Francisco launched the Bakar Aging Research Institute (BARI), a scientific community that aims to translate breakthroughs in aging research across many disciplines into new approaches and treatments that help people remain healthy and vibrant in later life. Here to tell us about the Institute are Professor Leanne Jones, who moved from UCLA to UCSF to serve as Director of BARI, and Associate Professor and Associate Director of BARI, Saul Villeda. Today Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda join host Chris Patil to discuss the mission and structure of the Institute, as well as their goal to bring people from different campuses together to push forward the field of aging research as a whole.
Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda talk about the collaborative culture at UCSF, lowering barriers to resources across disciplines, and what inspired the idea behind the Institute. They explain how they plan to foster communication between basic scientists, clinicians, and healthcare workers to enhance translational medicine, as well as the pathway to commercialization for BARI, and the value of building a community around improving human health together. Finally, Chris asks Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda about the greatest challenges they’ve had to overcome in starting the Institute, their top priorities moving forward, and what they’re most excited to achieve through BARI over the next five to ten years.


Episode Highlights:
Mission and structure of the https://bakarinstitute.ucsf.edu/ (Bakar Aging Research Institute) (BARI)
Responsibilities and benefits of membership in the institute 
Connecting researchers across campuses 
Network creation and community creation
Spirit of community will help attract other institutions to collaborate
Providing central resources and lowering barriers to research
What inspired the Institute and founding vision of Barbara Bakar
How BARI will enhance and promote translational medicine, translational applications
Improving communication amongst scientists, clinicians, and healthcare workers who are interested in treating problems related to aging
https://qb3.org/ (QB3 )is a University of California hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science
Path to commercialization for BARI
Value of communicating with the community and including everyone in the conversation about improving human health
Biggest challenges Dr. Jones and Dr. Villeda have had to overcome in getting BARI started
Building a tangible community through a hybrid system of virtual/in-person interactions
Top priorities moving forward and what they hope BARI will achieve in the next five to ten years
Investing in the community and helping people jumpstart their research programs (e.g., https://fellows.ucsf.edu/ (Sandler Fellows Program))



Quotes:
“Our mission is broad, and really focused on building networks and community around aging. And, as we've said, improving the outcomes for older adults.”


“It's exciting to think that our original vision of bringing people together from across all of the campuses is really coming to fruition.”


“The requirement is that you're a full-time faculty member or equivalent at UCSF, and membership brings an ability to have first priority for funding opportunities, as well as the core resources that we're building up currently.”


“What we quickly realized is that there are a lot of existing resources that people just don't know about. There was no centralized place, where you could just send an email and say, Hey, is anyone in Geriatrics...collecting blood from aging people?”


“That's really one of the main things I think that people will get out of this - it's sort of a central place where you can make connections to facilitate and push your research forward.”


“We really took it on as our charge to provide all of these resources for the community at UCSF, so that there's really lowering of any barrier to do the type of...