Kidney Disease Centers

Funding for Kidney Disease Centers

NIDDK funds Pediatric Centers of Excellence in Nephrology via P50. The O'Brien Kidney Centers are funded via P30. The Polycystic Kidney Disease Centers are funded via U54. For information on current funded Centers, please visit the NIH RePORTer website.

Centers are funded for project periods of five years. Current project periods and funding levels can be ascertained using the RePORTer tool. NIDDK plans for re-competitions at the end of each project period pending consideration and concurrence by the National Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council. Approved Center concepts can be found on this page.

Resources and Services Available from Kidney Disease Centers

There are seven Kidney Disease Centers also known as National Resource Centers (NRC) and are the components of a new George M. O’Brien Kidney Consortium. These centers will lead a nationwide effort in supporting kidney research by generating investigative resources that will be made available to the broader research community. These centers have integrated teams of investigators from a wide range of disciplines, share specialized equipment, and will serve as national resources. The coordinated efforts of all kidney centers will be managed and organized by a National Coordinating Center (NCC). All centers will participate in supporting an opportunity pool program that will be executed by the NCC and will focus on seeking and supporting new or early-stage investigators or investigators new to kidney research, who will address the scientific and technological gaps within the Consortium.

Pediatric Centers of Excellence in Nephrology

The goals of the Pediatric Centers of Excellence in Nephrology (PCEN) program are: 1. to attract new scientific expertise to the study of human pediatric renal physiology, kidney development, and pediatric kidney disorders; 2. to encourage multidisciplinary research in these areas; and 3. to develop the pediatric nephrology research community through a national research symposium, broad sharing of research resources, and a national Pilot and Feasibility grant program. The 3 funded centers will work collaboratively to reach the goals of the program.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

• Research Aims: The CHOP PCEN facilitates extensive collaborative research around the causes, diagnoses, and treatment of kidney diseases in children and aims to break down barriers to clinical trials implementation.
• Activities & Services
  • Learning Health System Core (LHS Core): This core leverages PEDSnet expertise and infrastructure to provide methodologic, informatics, and study development support to Center investigators and to expand the broad PEDSnet database to meet the needs of PCEN-sponsored studies.
  • Molecular Precision Nephrology Core (MPN Core): The overall goal of the MPN Core is to develop and maintain a tissue bank of human kidney samples that can be analyzed and translated into a kidney tissue reference resource atlas.
  • Enrichment Program: Aims to equip the research base with additional skill sets and maximizes interactions and intellectual discourse within the PCEN through early career engagement; career development and collaborations; and patient, family, and community engagement.
  • Opportunity Pool Pilot & Feasibility Program: Aims to support studies that promote synergistic interactions with the Cores, and brings new talent, scientific methods, and expertise to research focused on advancing clinical trials in childhood kidney disease.

• Research Aims: Provide a coordinated, interdisciplinary approach to study the development of the kidney vasculature during embryonic, fetal and postnatal life. The main theme of this Research Center is “Regulation of Cell Fate during Kidney Development and Disease.” Broadly, the proposed research (Projects 1 and 2) deals with fundamental questions of clinical relevance in Pediatric Nephrology such as the understanding of the proper development, and the structural and functional maintenance of the kidney vasculature in health and disease. Foster advances in knowledge, new methodologies, training and collaborations in an inclusive and diverse multidisciplinary environment to improve the management of infants and children with renal and urological diseases.
• Activities & Services
  • Educational Enrichment Program       
    • Inspire, attract, and stimulate the interest of young individuals in Pediatric Nephrology research.
    • Make new knowledge, technologies, expertise, and reagents available to all scientists worldwide.
    • Pursue collaborations with the broader research community.
    • Engage and educate the public and health professionals regarding recent advances in pediatric renal research.
  • Pilot & Feasibility Program
    • Encourages young and established investigators to take up research relevant to kidney development and disease and speed the acquisition of knowledge that can be applied to treatment of children with renal and urological diseases. This is in coordination with the other 2 PCENs.
      

Polycystic Kidney Disease Research and Translation Centers

The vision of the Polycystic Kidney Disease-Research Resource Consortium (RRC) is to accelerate discovery in polycystic kidney disease through innovation and resource sharing. The PKD- RRC was established in September 2020 as a collaborative team of Principal investigators (PIs) at three PKD Research and Translation Core Centers (RTCCs), the Central Coordinating Site (CCS) and the NIDDK. The RTCCs are located at the University of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham/Children’s National Medical Center. The CCS is located at University of Maryland.

Resources available through the PKD-RRC are available through pkd-rrc.org.

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