47. New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NYNORC)
The New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NYNORC) provides a nexus of basic and translational research in obesity and its allied disorders that is explicitly designed to promote close collaborations of research scientists and clinicians. The Center is closely integrated with all the relevant technical, intellectual and clinical resources of two major medical centers - Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine - and has a 43 year history of achievement in nearly all areas of obesity research and clinical care. Since its inception, the NYNORC has had as its major goal the pursuit of new insights into the biology, pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of obesity and related disorders. In service of this goal, we sustain a community of investigators in which creative ideas and interdisciplinary collaborations are encouraged, provide technical resources to carry out investigations including expedited clinical testing of promising ideas, and support the next generation of obesity researchers. The NYNORC has as its primary aim to convene and support - by its Core Services, Pilot & Feasibility and Enrichment programs - funded investigators at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine studying obesity. The themes for this Center include: the etiology, pathophysiology and complications of obesity; treatment strategies; the physiology of weight regulation and nutrient use; development of new tools and strategies for the study of nutrition and obesity; and the training and development of scientists to study nutrition and obesity. A particular strength of the NYNORC, by design, is an explicit commitment to the promotion of multidisciplinary research that integrates basic observations relating to nutritional, metabolic and behavioral biology, with the application of these insights to clinical approaches to the prevention and treatment of obesity. The size and breadth of our base has provided a strong basis for collaborations and productivity. The research base consists of 115 funded members. The NORC consists of three Biomedical Research Cores: Human Phenotyping, Animal Phenotyping, and Molecular Biology/Molecular Genetics. The research base is also supported by a highly successful Pilot & Feasibility Program – subsidized by the sponsoring institutions. In addition, through the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center programs in Frontiers in Diabetes Research, the Russell Berrie Foundation Initiative in the Neurobiology of Obesity and the recently inaugurated Pre-Translational Research Program, the NYNORC has access to additional funds to support innovative studies related to the pathogenesis and treatment of obesity. The NYNORC is a dynamic enterprise that has strong institutional support permitting it to evolve and thrive as it fosters novel and collaborative science in the study of obesity. The programs described here are closely coordinated with those of the NIH Diabetes Research Center (DRC) now in its 18th year. The remits of the NYNORC and DRC are distinct, but related by the study of major metabolic disorders. The Core facilities of the DRC (that include Translational Biomarker Analytical; Advanced Tissue Pathology Imaging; and Cytometry & Cell Sorting) are coordinated with those of the NYNORC to optimize the provision of critical resources.