The George M. O'Brien centers were established in 1987 as a NIH-funded interdisciplinary research centers in kidney and urological diseases. The UAB-UCSD O'Brien Center for Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is one of seven centers funded nationwide and is an interdisciplinary center of excellence in AKI-related research.  Centers are charged with providing shared resources to facilitate basic and clinical research in kidney disease and improve the effectiveness of translating research from basic to clinical practice. Centers also support pilot and feasibility studies to develop and test innovative approaches to studying kidney disease.

The Center investigators benefit from access to two Biomedical Resource Cores and a  Resource Development Core that integrate existing intellectual and technological resources of UAB and UCSD providing defined services that facilitate the research of investigators pursuing AKI-related basic and clinical investigation.

Administrative Core
Director: Anupam Agarwal, MD

Biomedical Resource Cores

Clinical Studies of AKI (Core A) -  Directors: Javier Neyra, MD & Ravindra Mehta, MD
Pre-Clinical Studies of AKI (Core B) - Director: Paul Sanders, MD & Volker Vallon, MD

Resource Development Core -  Directors: Javier Neyra, MD & Ravindra Mehta, MD 

The Educational Program organizes numerous workshops, lectures and training opportunities to further the mission of advancing AKI and kidney-related research.

The Pilot and Feasibility studies provide funds for new, outstanding and innovative research proposals related to Acute Kidney Injury. The O'Brien Kidney Consortium supports the PAF Grants program through their Opportunity Pool.

Partnerships