# Northwestern University O'Brien Kidney National Resource Center

> **NIH NIH U54** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $982,232

## Abstract

SUMMARY – NU-NRC OVERALL
Kidney diseases affect 37 million Americans, placing them at major risk for cardiovascular events, other co-
morbidities, and death. While there have been exciting recent advances in our field, to impact these staggering
numbers, it is critical to identify new therapeutic targets, expand our understanding of disease pathogenesis and
develop new methods to target specific cell types in the kidney. To do this, we must push disciplinary boundaries,
build new discovery platforms and partner with orthogonal disciplines. A major unmet challenge in kidney
research is the dearth of technologies and platforms that can incorporate the complexity and diversity of kidney
structure, cellular phenotypes and function in their design and execution. The proposed Northwestern
University National Resource Center (NU-NRC) will meet this challenge by leveraging innovations in the
physical sciences to provide unique tools, reagents, and platforms to kidney researchers. By design, these
resources take advantage of tissue and cellular diversity, making them powerful technologies for discovery-
based kidney research and therapeutic development.
The overarching theme of the NU-NRC is to adapt powerful physical sciences theory, tools, platforms, and
approaches to advance kidney investigation in a Physical Sciences-Kidney Resource Center. The major
goals of the Center are to A) harness physical science advances to provide new approaches to solve unmet
challenges in kidney research and discovery, and B) to provide easy access to physical science tools, reagents
and platforms to the broader kidney community to catalyze their research and spur innovation. We will
accomplish these goals through four specific aims: 1. Establish a Biomedical Resource Core focused on
established nanotechnology methods for cell-specific delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic payloads (small
molecules and biologics) 2. Establish a Resource Development Core focused on nascent technologies in
diverse areas of physical sciences to catalyse kidney research. 3. Establish an Administrative Core to oversee
all operations of the Center and ensure new technologies are made readily available to the kidney research
community and 4. Provide an immersive summer SciHigh research program for high school students.
A dedicated, energetic and talented transdisciplinary scientific and administrative team at Northwestern and the
University of Southern California will ensure NU-NRC fulfills its mission to transform kidney research through
physical science solutions and move us closer to realizing its bold vision: physical science solutions to cure
kidney diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10914907
- **Project number:** 5U54DK137516-02
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Alfred L. George
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $982,232
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-01 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10914907

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10914907, Northwestern University O'Brien Kidney National Resource Center (5U54DK137516-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10914907. Licensed CC0.

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