The nine centers that make up the ACE program conduct clinical trials and basic research on new immune-based therapies for autoimmune diseases. This program is designed to enhance interactions between scientists and clinicians in order to accelerate the translation of research findings into medical applications.

The AMDCC is an interdisciplinary consortium designed to develop animal models that closely mimic the human complications of diabetes for the purpose of studying disease pathogenesis, prevention and treatment. The consortium consists of thirteen “pathobiology sites” that study complications such as diabetic nephropathy, uropathy, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy and vascular disease. Additional goals of the AMDCC are to define standards to validate each diabetic complication for its similarity to the human disease, test the role of candidate genes that emerge from human genetic studies, and facilitate the exchange of animals, reagents, and expertise between members of the consortium and the greater scientific community. To ensure that all mice generated under the auspices of the AMDCC are phenotyped for a full duration of diabetes and across all relevant complications, the consortium has formed a close partnership with the NIDDK-funded Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers (MMPCs). The MMPCs (www.mmpc.org) conduct detailed metabolic phenotyping of genetically altered mice and other mouse models that are useful for understanding diabetes and its complications, obesity, and related metabolic diseases or conditions.

The KOMP Repository (www.komp.org);is the official archive and distribution center for the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP), a major 5-year trans-NIH initiative designed to generate null alleles in C57BL/6 embryonic stem (ES) cells for most genes not already available as knockout mice. Nearly 8500 genes are targeted for deletion, most in a conditional-ready format, by mutagenesis teams at "CSD" (Childrens Hospital of Oakland Research Institute, The Sanger Institute, and UC Davis) and at Regeneron, Inc. At the KOMP Repository at UC Davis and CHORI, you can obtain targeting vectors, ES cells, mice, and germplasm, as well as microinjection, genotyping, cryopreservation, breeding, and other services quickly and at reasonable cost to help you with your research project.

The mission of the BCBC is to facilitate interdisciplinary approaches that will advance our understanding of pancreatic islet cell development, regenerative capacity and function. The long-term goal is to develop a cell-based therapy, or treatments leading to controlled beta-cell renewal, in order to restore normal insulin production to diabetic patients.

The mission of the Autoimmune Disease Prevention Centers is to engage in scientific discovery which significantly advances knowledge for the prevention and regulation of autoimmune disease.

The Centers are housed at outstanding academic institutions, staffed by experts in state-of-the-art technology. Researchers can ship mice the four Centers and obtain on a fee-for-service basis a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance, eating and exercise, organ function and morphology, physiology and histology. Many tests are done in living animals and are designed to elucidate subtle to complex traits that would define models of metabolic disease.

The MMRRC distributes and cryopreserves scientifically valuable, genetically engineered mouse strains and mouse ES cell lines with potential value for the genetics and biomedical research community. The MMRRC is supported by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.

The NHPCSG, a multi-institution consortium, was established to evaluate the safety and efficacy of novel donor-specific, tolerance induction therapies in non-human primate (NHP) models of kidney and islet transplantation. The program also supports research into the immunological mechanisms of tolerance induction and development of surrogate markers for the induction, maintenance, and loss of tolerance.

NURSA's goals can be distilled into two broad aims: (i) to execute research strategies designed to rapidly and efficiently elucidate those facets of orphan nuclear receptor biology we deem most critical to its understanding; and (ii) to facilitate the generation of hypotheses, design of experiments and communication of results by scientists active in this field. We anticipate that this initiative will provide a valuable service to the nuclear receptor community by developing a web-accessible bioinformatics resource, in which current and emerging data will be organized into more accessible and "user-mineable" forms.

NIH RAID provides a variety of contract services researchers need to bring promising potential therapeutics to trial.

T1DGC was established with the primary goal of organizing international efforts to identify genes that determine an individual's risk of type 1 diabetes.

The Type 1 Diabetes Rapid Access to Intervention Development (T1D-RAID) program provides resources for pre-clinical development of drugs, natural products, and biologics that will be tested as new therapeutics in type 1 diabetes clinical trials. In some cases, additional preclinical testing is needed to validate potential therapies under disease-specific conditions and in multiple animal models before therapeutics can enter the T1D-RAID development pipeline. In recognition of this need, NIDDK recently established the Type 1 Diabetes Preclinical Testing Program (T1D-PTP) to provide investigators with access to the established facilities and expertise needed to extend, enhance and validate preclinical studies of promising new therapeutics for T1D and its complications.

The T1D-RAID program provides resources for pre-clinical development of drugs, natural products, and biologics that will be tested as new therapeutics in type 1 diabetes clinical trials.

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

HBDI maintains a repository of DNA and immortalized cell lines collected from 540 families of subjects with type 1 diabetes. It also houses a database that includes more than 6700 families with diabetes, related complications and other genetic diseases.

This project is a collaboration of four centers, working on a genome-wide basis, to generate a finished sequence of the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse genome, dovetailing with a number of targeted sequencing programs.

Look AHEAD (Action For Health in Diabetes) is a multi-center randomized clinical trial to examine the effects of a lifestyle intervention designed to achieve and maintain weight loss over the long term through decreased caloric intake and exercise. Look AHEAD is focusing on the disease most affected by overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes, and on the outcome that causes the greatest morbidity and mortality, cardiovascular disease.

This NHLBI study is testing whether strict glucose control lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke in adults with type 2 diabetes. In addition the study is exploring two additional issues:1) Whether in the context of good glycemic control the use of different lowering lipid drugs will further improve these outcomes and 2) If strict control of blood pressure will also have additional beneficial effects on reducing cardiovascular disease.

African Americans are disproportionately afflicted with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Although better management of high blood pressure has led to a decline in the number of people who develop strokes and heart disease, the number of people developing kidney failure has increased. In 1990, the NIDDK launched an initiative to investigate the underlying cause of ESRD and to study mechanisms that could slow progression of hypertensive kidney disease in African Americans. The clinical trial was initiated to investigate whether a specific class of antihypertensive drugs (beta-adrenergic blockers, calcium channel blockers, or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors) and/or the level of blood pressure would influence progression of hypertensive kidney disease in African Americans. The pilot study started in 1992 with its full-scale trial from 1995 to 2002 followed by a current Continuation of AASK Cohort Study. Only patients who were previously in the randomized trial are eligible for the cohort study. The primary goal of the Continuation of AASK Cohort Study is to investigate the environmental, socio-economic, genetic, physiologic, and other co-morbid factors that influence progression of kidney disease in a well-characterized cohort of African Americans with hypertensive kidney disease.

The NHLBI-led BARI-2D study aims to determine the best therapies for people with type 2 diabetes and moderately severe cardiovascular disease.

The Clinical Islet Transplantation (CIT) Consortium is a network of clinical centers and a data coordinating center established in 2004 to conduct studies of islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes. Studies conducted by the CIT Consortium will focus on improving the safety and long-term success of methods for transplanting islets, the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, in people whose own islets have been destroyed by the autoimmune process that characterizes type 1 diabetes.

The mission of CITR is to expedite progress and promote safety in islet/beta cell transplantation through the collection, analysis, and communication of comprehensive and current data on all islet/beta cell transplants performed in North America and soon some transplants in Europe and Australia. An Annual Report that is available on the public web site. This site serves as a repository for general information concerning protocols, clinical transplantation sites, publications, and other information of interest to the general community.

An observational study examining the risk factors associated with the long-term complications of type 1 diabetes. The study began in 1994 and follows the 1441 participants previously enrolled in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT).

The fundamental aim of GoKinD is to facilitate investigator-driven research into the genetic basis of diabetic nephropathy by collecting, storing, and distributing genetic samples from cases and controls of type 1 diabetes and diabetic nephropathy.

The ITN is an international consortium of scientists and physicians dedicated to the clinical evaluation of novel tolerogenic approaches for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergic diseases, and the prevention of graft rejection.

The three major goals of the ICRs are: 1) to provide pancreatic islets of cGMP-quality to eligible investigators for use in FDA approved, IRB-approved transplantation protocols; 2) to optimize the harvest, purification, function, storage, and shipment of islets while developing tests that characterize the quality and predict the effectiveness of islets transplanted into patients with diabetes mellitus; and 3) to provide pancreatic islets for basic science studies.

The National Gene Vector Laboratories (NGVL) are composed of an interactive group of academic production and pharm/tox laboratories whose primary goal is to provide eligible investigators with clinical grade vectors for phase I/II gene therapy clinical trials and to provide support for relevant pharmacology/toxicology studies leading up to clinical gene transfer protocols. If the application is approved, clinical grade material will be produced at no cost to the investigator.

The goals of the JDRF-supported nPOD initiative are to establish a network to determine the feasibility of procuring and characterizing, in a collaborative manner, pancreata and related tissues from cadaveric organ donors with type 1 diabetes as well as those whom are islet autoantibody positive; and to provide research access to these tissues to address key immunological, histological, viral, and metabolic questions related to how type 1 diabetes develops.

The U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) maintains a registry of human tissues in order to ensure the success and efficiency of the U.S. organ transplant system.

The TEDDY consortium is looking for the causes of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), including genetic and genetic-environmental interactions and childhood infections or other environmental factors predisposing to development of Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM). The consortium of six centers will recruit and enroll children, including obtaining informed consent from parents prior to or shortly after birth, obtain genetic and other samples from neonates and parents, and prospectively follow selected neonates throughout childhood or until development of islet autoimmunity or T1DM. Biological samples collected from the TEDDY study will be placed in the Central NIDDK Repository for access by interested investigators.

Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet is an international network of researchers who are exploring ways to prevent, delay and reverse the progression of type 1 diabetes. TrialNet is conducting clinical trials with researchers from 18 Clinical Centers in the United States, Canada, Finland, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, more than 150 medical centers and physician offices are participating in the TrialNet network. Studies are available for people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, as well as for relatives of people with type 1 diabetes who are at greater risk of developing the disease.

On July 1, 2003, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established Central NIDDK Repositories for biosamples and data collected in clinical studies. The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study.

The Diabetes Prevention Type 1 (DPT-1) trial is a NIDDK-funded multi-center clinical trial to determine if treatment with beta-cell antigens can delay the onset of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (Type 1 DM) in non-diabetic relatives of persons with Type 1 DM. Insulin is a well characterized antigen specifically produced by beta-cells, and it was used for this purpose in the initial DPT-1 studies. The protocol for high risk subjects uses daily subcutaneous insulin injections and an annual course of intravenous insulin treatment, while the protocol for intermediate risk subjects uses daily doses of insulin administered orally.

The Division of Nutrition Research Coordination at NIH provides the HNRIM database (Human Nutrition Research and Information Management), one of a collection of databases of interest to nutrition researchers, including CARDS (Computer Access to Research on Dietary Supplements), CDMRP (Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs), CRIS (U.S. Department of Agriculture Current Research Information System).

A statement of national objectives for health promotion and disease prevention for the first decade of the 21st century, the book has two overarching goals: increase quality and years of healthy life and eliminate health disparities. Specific parts of Healthy People 2010 relate to prostate and urinary bladder cancer, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes complications.

HNRIM is a searchable database of nutrition research and research training activities supported by the federal government.

The United States Renal Data System (USRDS) is a national data system that collects, analyzes, and distributes information about chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. The USRDS publishes and Annual data report which can be downloaded at http://www.usrds.org/adr.htm. The missions of the USRDS are: (1) To characterize the total renal patient population and describe the distribution of patients by socio-demographic variables across treatment modalities; (2) To report on the incidence, prevalence, mortality rates, and trends over time of renal disease by primary diagnosis, treatment modality and other variables; (3) To develop and analyze data on the effect of various modalities of treatment by disease and patient group categories; (4) To identify problems and opportunities for more focused special studies of renal research issues; (5) To conduct cost effectiveness studies and other economic studies of ESRD; and (6) To make the data available to investigators, and by supporting investigator-initiated projects, to conduct biomedical and economic analyses of ESRD patients.

Urologic diseases cover a wide range of conditions, symptoms, and problems that include such diverse diagnoses as cancer, pelvic pain, sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, kidney stones, and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). To remedy this lack of information, NIDDK initiated the Urologic Disease in America (UDA) project. The UDA compendium delineates the changes in the epidemiology, health economic impact, and practice patterns for the diseases currently included within the scope of practice of the specialty of urology, analyzed retrospectively over a ten-year period. The UDA compendium consists of data tables annotated in chapters that amplify the data analyses. The objectives of the UDA project include secondary data analyses of the following topics: (1) changes in the overall health care burden for individual urologic diseases; (2) changes in physician practice patterns for each urologic disease; (3) changes in demographics of persons with urologic disease; (4) the impact of specific urologic diseases, especially diseases of the prostate, on the minority populations of the U.S.; (5) documentation of new and evolving therapies for urologic disease and their potential impact on treatment outcomes and health care costs. The resultant compendium can be found at the above web address. In addition to updating the original compendium, the second phase of the UDA is to focus less on descriptive analyses and more on analytical outcomes analyses, and it will also attempt to increase involvement of the urologic community in analytical activities.