Overall - Project Summary Kidney diseases in general and acute kidney injury (AKI) in particular impose substantial morbidity and mortality that remain unabated despite concerted efforts in recent decades to reduce both. The overall mission of the UAB-UCSD O’Brien Center for AKI Research is to improve the health of patients by fostering research specifically targeted to the prevention and treatment of AKI and its complications. To achieve this mission, our two institution-based Center crosses institutional boundaries and research fields, harnessing the momentum and ingenuity of ongoing pre-clinical and clinical research in each of our institutions and nationally. In this application to become a National Resource Center (NRC) in the O’Brien Kidney Consortium, our theme- based Center proposes to share and combine resources, methods, innovations, and other expertise with the other NRCs, under the guidance of the Steering Committee, National Coordinating Center, and NIDDK, to attract new scientific expertise into the field and coordinate and prioritize resource development and innovative services that are most essential to the Consortium. The following aims are proposed: (1) Integrate our O’Brien Center into the Consortium to accelerate the pace of AKI-related research through the support of shared Core facilities and expertise while ensuring quality assurance/quality control, rigor, and reproducibility for the Core services; (2) Foster meaningful interactions among investigators in the Consortium; (3) Through the NCC and the Consortium, share the Center’s intellectual resources and infrastructure to expand the diversity of investigators in AKI-related research, with an emphasis on early-stage investigators; (4) Utilize our Resource Development Core to respond to the evolving needs of investigators through promotion of innovative lines of investigation in AKI-related research; (5) Develop tomorrow’s thought leaders through our Summer Student Training Program; and (6) Leverage our substantial institutional commitments to propel the development of AKI-related research within the Consortium. The proposed Biomedical Research Cores (a Clinical Core and a Pre-clinical Core) and Resource Development Core will integrate existing intellectual and technological resources to provide the Consortium a set of services/resources for innovative investigation in AKI-related research. Our Clinical Core will uniquely build upon established networks and infrastructure in clinical AKI research, including a large biospecimen collection, and through the use of a collaborative digital workspace, enhance these resources and make them readily available to the Consortium. Simultaneously, our Pre-Clinical Core will uniquely provide the breadth of expertise, experimental tools, and resources to help investigators overcome barriers to the utilization of relevant rodent models and advance understanding of the pathophysiology of AKI. To advance both realms, our Resource Development Core will provide a dynamic platform to develop, test, and refine innovations, including new analytical approaches in metabolomics and functional in vivo imaging and tools for federated machine learning using big electronic health record data.

Project Narrative Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major cause for morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients and is being increasingly recognized as a cause for chronic kidney disease and AKI doubles the length of stay in the hospital, increasing health care resources. The UAB-UCSD O’Brien Center for Acute Kidney Injury Research is an interdisciplinary center of excellence in AKI-related research, and is now proposing to be a member of the O’Brien Kidney Consortium as one of eight U54 National Resource Centers. This theme-based Center proposes to share resources, methods, and innovations with the Consortium to attract new scientific expertise into the field.