National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Scientific Director: Michael W. Krause, Ph.D.
The Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the NIDDK conducts basic, translational, and clinical biomedical research related to diabetes mellitus, endocrine, bone and metabolic diseases; digestive diseases, including liver diseases and nutritional disorders; kidney diseases; and hematologic diseases.
The research conducted in the IRP spans the breadth of modern biomedical investigation, from basic science to clinical studies. A sampling of areas under study includes:
- Biophysics – studies of protein folding, development of optical and vibrational imaging, and theory of protein dynamics
- Cell biology – studies of nuclear import/export, intracellular protein and lipid trafficking, cellular migration and prions
- Chemical biology and medicinal chemistry – synthesis and characterization of novel compounds and discovery of biologically active natural products
- Developmental biology – studies using model systems ranging from slime molds to vertebrates to human cells
- Genetics, pathogenesis, and novel therapies of disease – studies of diabetes types 1 and 2, hepatitis, lipodystrophy, multiple endocrine neoplasia, nephritis/nephropathy, obesity, sickle cell anemia, and transplantation
- Molecular biology – studies of chromatin structure and function, transcriptional regulation, and DNA recombination
- Signal transduction – basic and human disease-oriented studies of GTP-binding proteins and protein-coupled receptors, tyrosine kinase receptors, and nuclear hormone receptors
- Structural biology – studies using x-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy