Obesity and its co-morbidities are major threats to the health of Americans. In less than 20 years, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. The mission of the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules (NPOD) is to prevent, treat and cure obesity and co-morbidities with bioactive food compounds. The focus on bioactive food compounds is a unique niche in obesity research and has afforded NPOD with tools to ameliorate obesity and co-morbidities through consumer-friendly, economically feasible adjustments to their diets with a negligible effect on taste. In Phases 1 and 2, NPOD has delivered on NIGMS expectations. NPOD has increased its member base 4.9-fold to 59 faculty in 26 departments (representing 571 trainees) at University of Nebraska- Lincoln (UNL; lead institution), University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC; strategic partner), and University of Nebraska Omaha. This growth was achieved through nine tenure-leading faculty appointments, recruiting faculty not previously engaged in obesity research, and providing a home for obesity researchers who previously worked in isolation. To date, NPOD members have secured nearly $195 million in external research funding, a nearly 36:1 return on institutional investment. UNL and UNMC have contributed nearly 3500 square feet and $5.5 million to NPOD in Phases 1 and 2 with additional institutional commitments in Phase 3 and the three years following. Most of the new space was leveraged to develop a new Research Core (Biomedical and Obesity Research Core, BORC), which provides state-of-the art services for research on obesity and bioactive food compounds unique in Nebraska. BORC has fulfilled 1400 service requests per year that generated $266,335 in annual revenue. NPOD is poised to continue its strong trajectory toward sustainability in Phase 3 and beyond through five pillars of NPOD sustainability: institutional commitments, F&A costs, philanthropy, program project grants, and NIDDK funding through the Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (NORC) mechanism. NPOD's pursuit of sustainability will be guided by the following Specific Aims. Specific Aim 1: Implement NPOD's succession plan to achieve sustainability through preparing former Research Project Leaders and a new hire to serve as future Center Director. Specific Aim 2: Lead BORC into long-term sustainability by attracting new users, particularly external users, through continued alignment of services offered with user needs and strengthened promotional activities. Specific Aim 3: Increase NPOD's critical mass of investigators conducting clinically important research through the Center's Pilot Grants Program and a new faculty hire in a tenure leading appointment and expertise in electronic health records. Specific Aim 4: Increase NPOD's revenue by prioritizing pilot grant applications with a high likelihood of leading to large-scale federal funding. Specific Aim 5: Intensify efforts to convert NPOD from an NIGMS-funded COBRE to an NIDDK-funded NORC through nurturing a cohesive group of obesity and nutrition researchers in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.

PROJECT NARRATIVE Obesity and its co-morbidities are major threats to the health of Americans: 42% and 9% of Americans are obese and severely obese, respectively. The Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules (NPOD) occupies a unique niche in the portfolio of obesity research centers, which is to harness the powers of bioactive food compounds to prevent, treat, and cure obesity and its co-morbidities, thereby leading to economical and consumer-friendly interventions. NPOD researchers have amassed nearly $200 million in research funding and leveraged these funds to document the feasibility of disease prevention through bioactive food compounds in 1044 publications and 758 presentations, as well as intervention studies in rural Hispanic populations in Nebraska and Native Americans in South Dakota.