Pitt Researchers Receive Nearly $4 Million from NIH for Comprehensive Kidney Research Center
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Renal-Electrolyte Division today announced that it has been awarded a nearly $4 million, five-year Kidney Research Center grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), one of only eight centers in the United States.
“The main objectives of our Pittsburgh-based Kidney Research Center are to develop and facilitate multidisciplinary research, training and information transfer related to kidney physiology, cell biology and pathophysiology. The center will facilitate the translation of findings of basic kidney biology into studies that are truly translational or clinical in nature,” said Thomas R. Kleyman, M.D., director of the center. Dr. Kleyman is chief of the renal-electrolyte division and professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology, and pharmacology and chemical biology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ora Weisz, Ph.D., professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology will serve as the associate director of the center. The center will support four main core facilities: cellular physiology, single nephron and whole organ physiology, imaging at a cellular and organ level, and the use of model organisms to elucidate novel aspects of kidney function. All research cores are structured to serve as nationwide resources for investigators.
The Kidney Research Center also will support two-year pilot research projects that are currently led by Linton Traub, Ph.D., associate professor of cell biology and physiology; Agnes Swiatecka-Urban, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics; and Kenneth Hallows, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology.
According to the American Society of Nephrology, approximately 20 million Americans have some evidence of chronic kidney disease and are at risk to develop kidney failure. Another 20 million are at increased risk for developing kidney disease. Pittsburgh has one of the highest rates of end-stage kidney disease in the United States, with an estimated 3,200 local patients on dialysis. Nationally, more than 485,000 Americans have kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplantation.
The NIDDK established the George M. O’Brien Kidney Research program in 1987 to improve efficiency and collaborative research efforts among groups of investigators at institutions with an established comprehensive kidney research base.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is one of the nation’s leading medical schools, renowned for its curriculum that emphasizes both the science and humanity of medicine and its remarkable growth in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant support, which has more than doubled since 1998. For fiscal year 2006, the University ranked sixth out of more than 3,000 entities receiving NIH support with respect to the research grants awarded to its faculty. As one of the university’s six Schools of the Health Sciences, the School of Medicine is the academic partner to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Their combined mission is to train tomorrow’s health care specialists and biomedical scientists, engage in groundbreaking research that will advance understanding of the causes and treatments of disease and participate in the delivery of outstanding patient care.