NIH grant funds Houston Nutrition Obesity Research Center
The National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year, $5.9 million P30 grant to a collaborative team of investigators, including Kristin Eckel-Mahan, PhD, associate professor in the Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases, to establish the Houston Nutrition Obesity Research Center (H-NORC).
The center is one of only 11 university-based centers nationwide to receive this prestigious designation.
“This award is an overwhelming recognition of the outstanding translational research being done in the areas of nutrition and obesity at UTHealth Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and participating institutes in the region,” Eckel-Mahan said. “It reflects our collective potential to continue to improve multidisciplinary research in these areas by shared access to specialized expertise and resources.”
The co-principal investigators are Eckel-Mahan and Mark Herman, MD, section chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at Baylor College of Medicine. The center’s leadership team from Baylor College of Medicine includes includes Sean Hartig, PhD; Benjamin Arenkiel, PhD; Stephanie Sisley, MD; Chunmei Wang, PhD; and Sameer Mattar, MD. The center will also receive contributions from a wide network of investigators across UTHealth Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, Ben Taub Hospital, Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, the Michael E. DeBakey VA Hospital, the USDA/ARS Children’s Research Nutrition Center, and Texas Children’s Hospital.
The mission of the Houston Nutrition Obesity Research Center is to enhance the multidisciplinary nature and quality of obesity and nutritional sciences research by providing shared access to specialized services, resources, and expertise. To achieve this, the center includes three biomedical research cores — clinical and translational obesity research, cellular and molecular metabolism, and neuroendocrine — as well as an enrichment program to provide training, mentorship, and development for future leaders in the field.
“This award highlights the strength of our scientific community and the collaborative spirit that makes Baylor College of Medicine a leader in biomedical research,” said Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, chair and professor in the Margaret M. and Albert B. Alkek Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “The H-NORC will create new opportunities for innovation, strengthen partnerships across institutions, and support discoveries that will translate into improved health outcomes for patients with obesity and nutrition-related diseases.”