application) The proposed UAB Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (CNRU) will foster a multidisciplinary approach to basic, clinical and translational research with an emphasis on understanding the metabolic factors, environmental influences, and associated genetic traits underlying nutrition and obesity-related health problems. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) provides an ideal academic environment for interdisciplinary research centers. With a 50-year history of pioneering research, the Department of Nutrition Sciences currently includes 18 primary research faculty and $8.3 million in total direct cost funding (80% federal). In addition, the Department coordinates all of the extensive nutrition training and service programs at UAB. To complement its well-established nutrition research program, in 1990, the Department initiated a campus-wide effort to strengthen obesity research. Institutional support of $1.96 million enabled development of the Energy Metabolism Research Laboratory and recruitment of an outstanding team of scientists. The result was rapid growth in new/peer-reviewed funding and interdisciplinary collaborations, such that in 1996 UAB established an intramurally-funded University-Wide Obesity Nutrition Research Center which, with NIH funding, will evolve into the proposed CNRU. The CNRU research base comprises 60 investigators from 18 academic units, with total direct funding of $44 million for nutrition/obesity research (88% federal; 11 R01s). Of the 77 funded nutrition/obesity studies and approved P/F projects, 65 (84%) will use CNRU Cores. The Energy Metabolism/Body Composition Core will support metabolic studies in humans and small animals; Genetics Core will focus on research related to gene expression, polymorphism detection, and genetic animal models; Nutrient Analysis Core will provide an array of nutrient analyses and new methods development; and the Biostatistics Core will support study design and data analysis. The CNRU will also support three P/F studies, a New Investigator, and an Enrichment Program. With exceptional institutional support and an ideal academic infrastructure, UAB has established a strong base of obesity/nutrition research and is now poised to greatly expand this effort through creation of a CNRU.
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