Kidney Disease Centers
Enhancing the effectiveness of research related to nephrology by encouraging collaboration among investigators from relevant disciplines.
NIDDK Program Staff
- Christine Maric-Bilkan, Ph.D. Basic Science PKD; Diabetic Kidney Disease; Kidney Centers; Sex and Gender Differences; Kidney and Urology Fellowships
- Susan R. Mendley, M.D. Clinical and Translational PKD; Kidney Pediatrics; Kidney Centers; and Chronic Kidney Disease
- Deepak Nihalani, Ph.D. Kidney Centers; Kidney HIV/AIDS; Clinical Translational Studies; Urology HIV/AIDS
- Ivonne H. Schulman, M.D. Kidney Centers; Translational and Clinical Studies of Acute Kidney Injury
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.
- 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.
- Educational Enrichment Program
- Research Aims: The objective of the Washington University Kidney Single Cell Atlas Project (pKidCAP) is to create spatially resolved single cell molecular maps of pediatric reference and diseased kidneys at several time points across the pediatric lifespan. Discovery of regulatory factors associated with maturity and maladaptive or injury states will not only inform on therapeutic strategies but also in tissue engineering efforts.Project 1 of pKidCAP will construct a multimodal atlas of spatially resolved single nucleus gene expression and chromatin state maps with accompanying genomic variants at key stages of pediatric kidney development by using unique and innovatively collected high quality pediatric kidney samples from the Biomedical Core (pKidBIO).Project 2 will investigate the role of a new genetic driver of FSGS.Here single cell datasets as above will be generated at time points approximating the human postnatal development in control mice (for cross-species comparisons) and mouse model of FSGS (to find similarities in gene regulatory circuits with human FSGS). Through unique and innovative approaches and resources, WU Pediatric Center of Excellence will deliver novel concepts, knowledge and insights into the biology of kidney maturation and function in health and disease.
- Activities & Services
- Educational Enrichment Program
- We will institute a summer research series for selected undergraduates/medical students to perform research in Center members' laboratories/clinical service, and in affiliated labs that will be enhanced by dedicated lectures and discussions with clinical and research faculty across various aspects of kidney development, engineering and disease.
- Visiting lecture seminar series by leading experts in pediatric nephrology and single cell studies
- Research Cores provide essential services, techniques, and resources to Center projects and Center participants, enabling them to conduct their research more efficiently, effectively, and in a cost-sensitive manner.
- Pediatric Kidney Tissue Core
- Human iPSC Core
- Pilot & Feasibility Program
- This Pilot and Feasibility program will encourage young and established investigators to undertake research relevant to kidney development, engineering and disease multiomics to accelerate the acquisition of knowledge that can be applied to treatment of children with renal and urological diseases and engineer devices to replenish kidney function.
- Educational Enrichment Program
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.
Related Links
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View related clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
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Study sections conduct initial peer review of applications in a designated scientific area. Visit the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review website to search for study sections.
Research Resources
NIDDK makes publicly supported resources, data sets, and studies available to researchers to accelerate the rate and lower the cost of new discoveries.
- Ancillary Studies to Major Ongoing Clinical Studies to extend our knowledge of the diseases being studied by the parent study investigators under a defined protocol or to study diseases and conditions not within the original scope of the parent study but within the mission of the NIDDK.
- NIDDK Central Repository for access to clinical resources including data and biospecimens from NIDDK-funded studies.
- NIDDK Information Network (dkNET) for simultaneous search of digital resources, including multiple datasets and biomedical resources relevant to the mission of the NIDDK.
Additional Research Programs
Research Training
NIDDK supports the training and career development of medical and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and physician scientists through institutional and individual grants.
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Diversity Programs
The NIDDK offers and participates in a variety of opportunities for trainees and researchers from communities underrepresented in the biomedical research enterprise. These opportunities include travel and scholarship awards, research supplements, small clinical grants, high school and undergraduate programs, and a network of minority health research investigators.
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Small Business Programs
NIDDK participates in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. These programs support innovative research conducted by small businesses that has the potential for commercialization.
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Human Subjects Research
NIDDK provides funding for pivotal clinical research, from preliminary clinical feasibility to large multi-center studies.
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NIDDK provides funding opportunities and resources to encourage translation of basic discoveries into novel therapeutics.
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NIH Common Fund
Learn about current projects and view funding opportunities sponsored by the NIH Common Fund.
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