The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Disease

Obesity Databases, Registries and Information

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

For more information, contact Dr. Rebekah Rasooly, Deputy Director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases

The Diabetes Genome Anatomy Project (DGAP) represents a unique, multidimensional initiative whose goal is to unravel the interface between insulin action, insulin resistance and the genetics of type 2 diabetes. The overall goal of the project is to identify the sets of the genes involved in insulin action and the predisposition to type 2 diabetes, as well as the secondary changes in gene expression that occur in response to the metabolic abnormalities present in diabetes.

For more information, contact Dr. Olivier Blondel, DEM, Director, Endocrine Systems Biology Program

The Centers are housed at outstanding academic institutions, staffed by experts in state-of-the-art technology. Researchers can ship mice to one of the four Centers and obtain on a fee-for-service basis a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance, eating and exercise, organ function and morphology, physiology and histology. Many tests are done in living animals and are designed to elucidate subtle to complex traits that would define models of metabolic disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Maren Laughlin, DEM, Senior Advisor for Integrative Metabolism

The National Gene Vector Laboratories (NGVL) are composed of an interactive group of academic production and pharm/tox laboratories whose primary goal is to provide eligible investigators with clinical grade vectors for phase I/II gene therapy clinical trials and to provide support for relevant pharmacology/toxicology studies leading up to clinical gene transfer protocols. If the application is approved, clinical grade material will be produced at no cost to the investigator.

For more information, contact Dr. Catherine McKeon, DEM, Senior Advisor for Genetic Research in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases

The Nuclear Receptor Resource (NRR) Project is a collection of individual databases on members of the steroid and thyroid hormone receptor superfamily. Although the databases are located on different servers and are managed individually, they each form a node of the NRR. The NRR itself integrates the separate databases and allows an interactive forum for the dissemination of information about the superfamily.

For more information, contact Dr. Ronald Margolis, DEM, Senior Advisor, Molecular Endocrinology

Commensurate with this directive, NURSA's goals can be distilled into two broad aims: (i) to execute research strategies designed to rapidly and efficiently elucidate those facets of orphan nuclear receptor biology we deem most critical to its understanding; and (ii) to facilitate the generation of hypotheses, design of experiments and communication of results by scientists active in this field. We anticipate that this initiative will provide a valuable service to the nuclear receptor community by developing a web-accessible bioinformatics resource, in which current and emerging data will be organized into more accessible and "user-mineable" forms.

For more information, contact Dr. Ronald Margolis, DEM, Senior Advisor, Molecular Endocrinology

Obesity Multicenter Clinical Research

Look AHEAD (Action For Health in Diabetes) is a multi-center randomized clinical trial to examine the effects of a lifestyle intervention designed to achieve and maintain weight loss over the long term through decreased caloric intake and exercise. Look AHEAD is focusing on the disease most affected by overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, and on the outcome that causes the greatest morbidity and mortality, cardiovascular disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Evans, DDN, Director, Special Projects in Nutrition, Obesity, and Digestive Diseases

This NHLBI study is testing whether strict glucose control lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke in adults with type 2 diabetes. In addition the study is exploring two additional issues:1) Whether in the context of good glycemic control the use of different lowering lipid drugs will further improve these outcomes and 2) If strict control of blood pressure will also have additional beneficial effects on reducing cardiovascular disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Saul Malozowski, DEM, Senior Advisor for Endocrine Physiology

The NHLBI-led BARI-2D study aims to determine the best therapies for people with type 2 diabetes and moderately severe cardiovascular disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Teresa Jones, DEM, Director, Diabetes Complications Program

The DPP showed that lifestyle change or metformin delay the development of type 2 diabetes. The DPPOS is a long-term follow-up study of the DPP participants.

For more information, contact Dr. Sanford Garfield, DEM, Senior Advisor for Biometry and Behavioral Research Program

The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study is studying the long term effect of diet and exercise and the diabetes medication, metformin, on the delay of type 2 diabetes in participants of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP).

For more information, contact Dr. Sanford Garfield, DEM, Senior Advisor for Biometry and Behavioral Research Program

The HEALTHY study, which seeks to prevent risk factors for type 2 diabetes in middle school children, began in September 2006.

For more information, contact Dr. Barbara Linder, DEM, Senior Advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research

The Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded consortium of six clinical centers and a data coordinating center working in cooperation with NIH scientific staff to plan, develop, and conduct coordinated clinical, epidemiological, and behavioral research in the field of bariatric surgery.

For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Miles, DDN, Director, Clinical Obesity and Nutrition Program

The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Consortium (NASH CRN) is a collaborative group of eight adult and pediatric clinical research centers and a data coordinating center created to focus on the etiology, contributing factors, natural history, complications, and therapy of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. A long term database and a two clinical trials, one in adults and one in children, are ongoing.

For more information, contact Dr. Patricia Robuck, DDN, Program Director for Clinical Trials in Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Program

SEARCH is a multi-center study that identifies cases of diabetes in children/youth < 20 years of age in six geographically dispersed populations that encompass the ethnic diversity of the United States.

For more information, contact Dr. Barbara Linder, DEM, Senior Advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research

The TODAY (Treatment Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth) study seeks to identify the best treatment of type 2 diabetes in children and teens.

For more information, contact Dr. Barbara Linder, DEM, Senior Advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research

or http://www.uitn.net/

The network is a group of collaborating investigators who conduct long-term studies and clinical trials of the most commonly used surgical, pharmacological, and behavioral approaches for management of urinary incontinence in women diagnosed with stress and mixed incontinence.

For more information, contact Dr. Debuene Chang, KUH, Director, Urology and Women's Urological Health Programs; Urology SBIR Program

Obesity Basic Research Networks

The AMDCC is an interdisciplinary consortium designed to develop animal models that closely mimic the human complications of diabetes for the purpose of studying disease pathogenesis, prevention and treatment. The consortium consists of thirteen “pathobiology sites” that study complications such as diabetic nephropathy, uropathy, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy and vascular disease. Additional goals of the AMDCC are to define standards to validate each diabetic complication for its similarity to the human disease, test the role of candidate genes that emerge from human genetic studies, and facilitate the exchange of animals, reagents, and expertise between members of the consortium and the greater scientific community. To ensure that all mice generated under the auspices of the AMDCC are phenotyped for a full duration of diabetes and across all relevant complications, the consortium has formed a close partnership with the NIDDK-funded Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers (MMPCs). The MMPCs (www.mmpc.org) conduct detailed metabolic phenotyping of genetically altered mice and other mouse models that are useful for understanding diabetes and its complications, obesity, and related metabolic diseases or conditions.

For more information, contact Dr. Chris Ketchum, KUH, Director, Basic Renal Biology Program

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

For more information, contact Dr. Rebekah Rasooly, Deputy Director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases

The Diabetes Genome Anatomy Project (DGAP) represents a unique, multidimensional initiative whose goal is to unravel the interface between insulin action, insulin resistance and the genetics of type 2 diabetes. The overall goal of the project is to identify the sets of the genes involved in insulin action and the predisposition to type 2 diabetes, as well as the secondary changes in gene expression that occur in response to the metabolic abnormalities present in diabetes.

For more information, contact Dr. Olivier Blondel, DEM, Director, Endocrine Systems Biology Program

The Centers are housed at outstanding academic institutions, staffed by experts in state-of-the-art technology. Researchers can ship mice to one of the four Centers and obtain on a fee-for-service basis a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance, eating and exercise, organ function and morphology, physiology and histology. Many tests are done in living animals and are designed to elucidate subtle to complex traits that would define models of metabolic disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Maren Laughlin, DEM, Senior Advisor for Integrative Metabolism

NMRI is a communication network of current and potential biomedical research investigators and technical personnel from traditionally under-served communities: African American, Hispanic American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islanders. The major objective of the network is to encourage and facilitate participation of members of underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups in the conduct of biomedical research in the fields of diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism, digestive diseases, nutrition, kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases. A second objective is to encourage and enhance the potential of the underrepresented minority investigators in choosing a biomedical research career in these fields. An important component of this network is promotion of two-way communications between network members and the NIDDK.

For more information, contact Ms. Winnie Martinez, Program Analyst, Office of Minority Health Research Coordination

Commensurate with this directive, NURSA's goals can be distilled into two broad aims: (i) to execute research strategies designed to rapidly and efficiently elucidate those facets of orphan nuclear receptor biology we deem most critical to its understanding; and (ii) to facilitate the generation of hypotheses, design of experiments and communication of results by scientists active in this field. We anticipate that this initiative will provide a valuable service to the nuclear receptor community by developing a web-accessible bioinformatics resource, in which current and emerging data will be organized into more accessible and "user-mineable" forms.

For more information, contact Dr. Ronald Margolis, DEM, Senior Advisor, Molecular Endocrinology

Obesity Reagents

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

For more information, contact Dr. Rebekah Rasooly, Deputy Director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases

The National Gene Vector Laboratories (NGVL) are composed of an interactive group of academic production and pharm/tox laboratories whose primary goal is to provide eligible investigators with clinical grade vectors for phase I/II gene therapy clinical trials and to provide support for relevant pharmacology/toxicology studies leading up to clinical gene transfer protocols. If the application is approved, clinical grade material will be produced at no cost to the investigator.

For more information, contact Dr. Catherine McKeon, DEM, Senior Advisor for Genetic Research in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases

Obesity Services

A centralized facility established to provide genotyping and statistical genetics services for investigators seeking to identify genes that contribute to human disease. CIDR concentrates primarily on multifactorial hereditary disease although linage analysis of single gene disorders can also be accommodated.

For more information, contact Dr. Catherine McKeon, DEM, Senior Advisor for Genetic Research in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

For more information, contact Dr. Rebekah Rasooly, Deputy Director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases

The Centers are housed at outstanding academic institutions, staffed by experts in state-of-the-art technology. Researchers can ship mice to one of the four Centers and obtain on a fee-for-service basis a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance, eating and exercise, organ function and morphology, physiology and histology. Many tests are done in living animals and are designed to elucidate subtle to complex traits that would define models of metabolic disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Maren Laughlin, DEM, Senior Advisor for Integrative Metabolism

NIH RAID provides a variety of contract services researchers need to bring promising potential therapeutics to trial.

Obesity Standardization Programs

Obesity Tissues, Cells, Animals

The AMDCC is an interdisciplinary consortium designed to develop animal models that closely mimic the human complications of diabetes for the purpose of studying disease pathogenesis, prevention and treatment. The consortium consists of thirteen “pathobiology sites” that study complications such as diabetic nephropathy, uropathy, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy and vascular disease. Additional goals of the AMDCC are to define standards to validate each diabetic complication for its similarity to the human disease, test the role of candidate genes that emerge from human genetic studies, and facilitate the exchange of animals, reagents, and expertise between members of the consortium and the greater scientific community. To ensure that all mice generated under the auspices of the AMDCC are phenotyped for a full duration of diabetes and across all relevant complications, the consortium has formed a close partnership with the NIDDK-funded Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers (MMPCs). The MMPCs (www.mmpc.org) conduct detailed metabolic phenotyping of genetically altered mice and other mouse models that are useful for understanding diabetes and its complications, obesity, and related metabolic diseases or conditions.

For more information, contact Dr. Chris Ketchum, KUH, Director, Basic Renal Biology Program

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

For more information, contact Dr. Rebekah Rasooly, Deputy Director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases

The Centers are housed at outstanding academic institutions, staffed by experts in state-of-the-art technology. Researchers can ship mice to one of the four Centers and obtain on a fee-for-service basis a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance, eating and exercise, organ function and morphology, physiology and histology. Many tests are done in living animals and are designed to elucidate subtle to complex traits that would define models of metabolic disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Maren Laughlin, DEM, Senior Advisor for Integrative Metabolism

The goal of the MMRRC program is to enhance the availability of and help ensure the quality of genetically modified mice for biomedical research of human and animal biology and disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Kristin Abraham, DEM, Director, Cell Signaling and Diabetes Centers Program

Obesity Useful Tools

BMI for adults can be calculated using only height and weight.