A new $2 million grant over five years from the National Institute on Aging will help researchers at Cornell, Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and collaborating institutions translate knowledge in basic behavioral and social science into treatments, intervention programs and policies related to pain disorders.

The Cornell-Columbia Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL), which will address pain from chronic cancer-related and non-cancer pain to acute pain and pain occurring in the context of palliative care, will also specifically address the needs of New York City's multi-ethnic and lower-income older adult populations with culturally sensitive programs toward redressing treatment disparities.

One of the country's most extensive community-centered research initiatives in the field of aging, TRIPLL is expected to reach more than 300,000 New York metro-area seniors. The initiative will be one of 12 Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology nationwide.

"A major advantage of the new center are the links it will create between social and behavioral science and various specialties in medicine, as well as its strong ties to community health and social service agencies," said Karl Pillemer, TRIPLL co-principal investigator, the Hazel E. Reed Professor of human development at Cornell and professor of gerontology in medicine at WCMC. "The problem of pain in later life is so complex, it requires such an integrated network of scientists and practitioners working together to develop innovative solutions."

TRIPLL will provide support to a diverse population of older adults in New York hospital settings through NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System; and via senior centers, retirement communities, home care aides and long-term care facilities.

The new institute is an expansion of the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging, a Roybal Center since 2003. Weill Cornell's Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology in New York City will serve as the new program's hub, with other principal members including Cornell's College of Human Ecology and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Other members include the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Hospital for Special Surgery and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

Also leading TRIPLL are Elaine Wethington, associate professor of human development, who will direct the pilot studies program, and Rhoda Meador, associate director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center.

The Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology are designed to move promising social and behavioral basic research findings out of the laboratory and into programs, practices and policies that will improve the lives of older people and the capacity of society to adapt to societal aging.