Urologic Diseases Research Updates
Winter 2008

Research News

NIDDK Fosters Innovation, Collaboration through O’Brien Research Centers

To foster innovative approaches to research challenges facing today’s scientists, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) has changed the format of the George M. O’Brien Kidney and Urology Research Centers Program.

The NIDDK created the O’Brien Kidney and Urology Research Centers Program in 1987 to bring together investigators from different disciplines to enhance kidney and urologic diseases research. Since that time, the NIDDK has provided 5-year grants to research institutions with dynamic teams in research fields relevant to kidney and urologic conditions. The seven kidney and five urology centers in the program are allowed to serve as an institutional, regional, national, or even international resource. The pilot and feasibility (P&F) program and new core resources component expand the overall program goal of improving research into the causes, treatment, and cure of kidney and urologic diseases.

The Road Ahead

Interrelated, basic research subprojects, each with high scientific merit and clear research objectives, have been the hallmarks of the O’Brien Kidney and Urology Research Centers Program. With the new changes, the goals of the George M. O’Brien Kidney and Urology Research Centers Program are to

• continue to attract new scientific expertise to the study of the basic mechanisms of kidney and urologic diseases and disorders
• encourage multidisciplinary research focused on the causes of kidney and urologic diseases
• encourage translational research in kidney and urologic diseases
• explore new basic areas that may have clinical research application
• generate 2-year P&F studies that will lead to innovative approaches to studying kidney and urologic diseases and the eventual submission of competitive investigator-initiated R01 research grant applications

The P&F program provides modest support for innovative initiatives with the potential to advance understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause kidney and urologic diseases or to pilot small clinical studies. This program is directed at both new and established investigators who wish to explore a novel approach to a problem in these areas.

The mounting complexities associated with the studies of disease processes will likely require investigations in cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, genomics and proteomics, epidemiology, immunology, and pathology. In addition, research will likely focus on topical areas in kidney disease, such as diabetic nephropathy or other endocrine and metabolic disorders, hypertension in kidney disease, hereditary kidney disease, immunologic kidney disease, acute kidney failure, and nephrotoxic cell injury.

For the urology centers, research must be centered on a single major urologic disease or disorder relevant to the NIDDK’s mission interests, which will serve as a central theme for individual research projects and the biomedical core(s). Each center must provide an interdisciplinary approach using basic laboratory, translational, and clinical research. Centers will also have an Educational Enrichment Program.

Urologic diseases and disorders that are appropriate for research focus include benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis, urinary incontinence, dysfunctional voiding, urinary tract infections, interstitial cystitis, erectile function, urinary tract stone disease, and chronic pelvic pain of bladder origin.

Applications for the next round of O’Brien Urology Center grants are due March 13, 2008. The Request for Applications is available online at www.grants.nih.gov.

For more information about the O’Brien kidney centers, contact the NIDDK project officer, Marva Moxey-Mims, M.D., at moxey-mimsm@extra.niddk.nih.gov, 301–594–7717. Information about the O’Brien urology centers is available from the NIDDK project officer, Debuene Chang, M.D., at dc475y@nih.gov, 301–594–7717.

NIH Publication No. 08–5743
March 2008

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