The major goal of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of Washington (UW) is to support basic, clinical, and translational research at UW related to nutrition, obesity, and related metabolic disturbances. To achieve this goal, we include three biomedical research cores, an Administrative and Enrichment Core, and Enrichment and Pilot and Feasibility Programs. Collectively, these Cores and Programs support research using animal models as well as translational, clinical, and epidemiological research. As the preeminent educational institution in the Northwest, our research base derives from a large, highly productive, School of Medicine that includes both clinical and basic research Departments, a School of Public Health, and affiliated research institutions. We offer a broad range of services to this diverse research base and focus on three overarching scientific themes: Energy Balance and Obesity Pathogenesis, Health Risks of Obesity, and Nutritional Aspects of Systemic Illness. Over the years, the organization and offerings of our Cores have evolved to keep pace with the changing needs of researchers, but always with the same objectives: to support our investigators, to advance nutrition and obesity-related science, to foster new collaborations, and to educate and inform the local community about the fields of nutrition and obesity. The Cores include: 1) an Energy Balance Core, which offers measures of body composition and energy balance and related endpoints in rodent models; 2) a new Clinical and Translational Research Services Core which provides Affiliate Investigators (AIs) performing human research with support for study conduct including human phenotyping, measures of body composition, specialized noninvasive imaging assessment tools, meal preparation, nutrition assessment, and exercise testing and training; 3) an Analytic Core, which provides AIs with cost-effective, state-of-the-art laboratory assays for both clinical and basic research, including new assays designed specifically to meet the evolving needs of our AIs, and includes the Discovery Metabolomics Subcore; and 4) an Administrative and Enrichment Core that is responsible for all day-to-day operations as well as administering the Enrichment and Pilot and Feasibility Programs that serve the educational and training needs of the local research community. The latter Core also contains a Biostatistical Subcore that offers expertise and support to NORC faculty, personnel, and AIs for study design and biostatistical and bioinformatics analyses including complex types of high-dimensional data (i.e., omics). In this way, the NORC helps to meet the evolving research and educational needs of its large and varied nutrition/obesity research base, which consists of 68 AIs, with collective research funding of $29.2 million in annual direct costs.
Obesity and associated metabolic disorders have emerged as leading health problems in the U.S. and, increasingly, globally as well. Both preventing obesity and lowering the health risks of obesity once it occurs, require advancing understanding of its underlying causes. The NORC offers valuable resources to a large group of researchers at UW investigating nutrition, obesity, and associated disorders.
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