The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases

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.

The mission of the BCBC is to facilitate interdisciplinary approaches that will advance our understanding of pancreatic islet cell development, regenerative capacity and function. The long-term goal is to develop a cell-based therapy, or treatments leading to controlled beta-cell renewal, in order to restore normal insulin production to diabetic patients.

For more information, contact Dr. Olivier Blondel, DEM, Director, Endocrine Systems Biology Program or Dr. Sheryl Sato , DEM, Director, Neurobiology of Obesity and Developmental Biology Programs.

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 mission of these Prevention Centers is to engage in scientific discovery which significantly advances knowledge for the prevention and regulation of autoimmune disease.

For more information, contact Dr. Beena Akolkar, DEM, Director, Immunopathogenesis and Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes Program

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.

To promote research on the causes of drug-induced liver disease, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has created the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN). Its purpose is to collect and carefully analyze cases of liver problems caused by prescription drugs and alternative medicines, such as herbal products.
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For more information, contact Dr. Jose Serrano, DDN, Director, Liver and Biliary Program and Pancreas Program.

The fundamental aim of GoKinD is to facilitate investigator-driven research into the genetic basis of diabetic nephropathy by collecting, storing, and distributing genetic samples from cases and controls of type 1 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy.

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

The ITN is an international consortium of scientists and physicians dedicated to the clinical evaluation of novel tolerogenic approaches for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergic diseases, and the prevention of graft rejection.

For more information, contact Dr. Beena Akolkar, DEM, Director, Immunopathogenesis and Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes Program.

The three major goals of the ICRs are: 1) to provide pancreatic islets of cGMP-quality to eligible investigators for use in FDA approved, IRB-approved transplantation protocols; 2) to optimize the harvest, purification, function, storage, and shipment of islets while developing tests that characterize the quality and predict the effectiveness of islets transplanted into patients with diabetes mellitus; and 3) to provide pancreatic islets for basic science studies.

For more information, contact Dr. Michael Appel, DEM, Director, Islet Biology and Transplantation Research 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.

Serum and biopsy samples from the MTOPS clinical trial represent a valuable resource for those seeking to develop and evaluate biological and genetic markers useful in the detection of BPH, or in predicting progression and response to therapy.

For more information, contact Dr. Chris Mullins, KUH, Director, Urology Basic Cell Biology Program.

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.

The NHPCSG, a multi-institution consortium, was established to evaluate the safety and efficacy of novel donor-specific, tolerance induction therapies in non-human primate (NHP) models of kidney and islet transplantation. The program also supports research into the immunological mechanisms of tolerance induction and development of surrogate markers for the induction, maintenance, and loss of tolerance.

For more information, contact Dr. Michael Appel, DEM, Director, Islet Biology and Transplantation Research Program.

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.

This multi-center, multi-national collaborative group of pediatric clinical liver centers is aimed at identifying, characterizing, and developing management strategies for infants, children, and adolescents who present with acute liver failure (ALF). In addition to a database of pediatric patients with ALF, a clinical trial is being conducted to test whether the drug N-acetylcysteine (NAC) improves outcome (survival) for patients with ALF not caused by acetaminophen overdose.

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

This trans-NIH program is encouraging and facilitating the study of the underlying mechanisms controlling blood vessel growth and development.

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

T1DGC was established with the primary goal of organizing international efforts to identify genes that determine an individual's risk of type 1 diabetes.

For more information, contact Dr. Beena Akolkar, DEM, Director, Immunopathogenesis and Genetics of Type 1 Diabetes Program