A two-year, $585,958 exploratory P20 research grant, has been awarded to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to establish an interdisciplinary research center in benign urology. The Center for Research on Obesity and Oxalate Kidney Stones (COOKS) has since yielded new information about the relationship between oxalate kidney stones and obesity.
While the associations between obesity and kidney stone risk have been defined, UAB Department of Urology faculty Dean Assimos, M.D., Ross Holmes, Ph.D., John Knight, Ph.D., and Kyle Wood, M.D., worked closely with Barbara Gower, Ph.D., in the Department of Nutrition Sciences in UAB’s School of Health Professions to evaluate preliminary data about the mechanisms behind this relationship.
“The goal of the P20 grant and the center is to increase our understanding of the relationships between obesity and endogenous oxalate synthesis. This will hopefully serve as a platform to develop novel therapies for stone prevention,” Assimos said.
The five investigators hope the results of this grant will generate a program project or a future R01 grant.