Monday, March 17, 2025
3/17/2025
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT – OVERALL COMPONENT This application seeks continued funding for the Washington University (WU) Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC). Since our NORC was first funded in 1999, it has served as a nidus for the growth and development of nutrition and obesity research at WU. The infrastructure provided by the NORC has created an environment that supports and stimulates cost-effective and high-quality research, collaborations between investigators, training and career development in nutrition and obesity. Our NORC has a talented and diverse research base consisting of 114 investigators (86 Regular Members and 28 Associate Members) from 3 different schools (School of Medicine, Brown School Program in Public Health, and the College of Arts and Sciences) and 18 different departments within the School of Medicine. These investigators have 169 nutrition/obesity-related grants, generating $72.6 million/year in direct costs; 94% of NORC Regular Members have NIH funding and 90% of total grant support is from Federal sources. The major research themes of the WU NORC are: 1) Obesity: Pathophysiology, Complications, and Therapeutics and 2) Nutrient Metabolism in Health and Disease. In addition, newly emerging areas of major interest include: 1) Community Health; and 2) Gut Microbiome. We propose an Administrative Core, a Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) Program, which provides four P&F awards/year to junior faculty and helps mentor them on their projects and careers, and 4 Biomedical Research Core laboratories: 1) the Clinical Science Research Core, which provides assistance with: i) design and performance of complex metabolic studies, ii) body composition assessments, iii) acquisition of adipose tissue and muscle samples, v) cardiovascular assessments, vi) exercise and physical performance testing, vii) lifestyle interventions, vii) assessment of substrate kinetics in vivo by using stable isotope tracers, viii) mathematical modeling of tracer and non-tracer data, ix) plasma substrate and hormone concentrations, and x) biostatistical support; 2) the Animal Model Research Core, which provides: i) training in breeding and animal husbandry, ii) biochemical and molecular analyses of blood and tissue samples, iii) body composition analyses, iv) genotyping, and v) metabolic phenotyping; 3) the Cellular and Molecular Biology Core, which provides: i) adipose tissue morphology, ii) adipocyte and muscle cell lines for culture, iii) gene and protein expression, iv) mitochondrial physiology, v) extracellular vesicle isolation, and vi) training in specialized research techniques, and 4) the new Dissemination and Implementation Science Core, which provides services to help NORC investigators incorporate dissemination and implementation science into their research programs to help advance the translation of their scientific discoveries to improve health outcomes and promote equity among diverse populations. The collaborative interaction among our NORC research base and our four Core laboratories encourage interdisciplinary approaches to address important issues in nutrition and obesity.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).