Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC)

– Overall Component MPI: Mayer-Davis, Elizabeth J and Shaikh, Saame R Project Summary – Overall Component. The overarching theme of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is “Interdisciplinary Nutrition Research: From Molecules to Public Health.” The UNC NORC brings together community, population-based, clinical, and basic science investigators to increase the effectiveness of nutrition and obesity research. Truly innovative, high-impact research requires communication and collaboration of researchers along the continuum from basic science through clinical to public health research. To facilitate a bidirectional translational process, the UNC NORC created an infrastructure that makes it easy for investigators from different disciplines, who often speak different scientific “languages,” to share methods and ideas so they can solve problems relevant to nutrition and obesity using new perspectives derived from the interfaces of their disciplines. We include an Administrative Core and three biomedical research cores: the Genomics and Metabolic Phenotyping Core, the Clinical and Community Human Assessment and Interventions Core, and the Metabolomics and Proteomics Core are successful cores providing exceptional services to both UNC NORC members and external users across the nation. The UNC NORC Pilot and Feasibility Program successfully funds young investigators who were able to use this seed money to develop competitive NIH proposals, and the Enrichment Program disseminates the results of the UNC NORC’s members. Our record of success during the last funding period is substantial. The UNC NORC has 136 member scientists from 39 different departments and divisions of UNC. They have exceptional research funding, having been awarded $144.7 million in nutrition and obesity grant funding during the last five years. Of this total, 88% was from federal grants ($127 million) with $29.2 million from the NIDDK. Our research base members have an exceptional publication record, with 912 peer-reviewed publications that are directly related to the support they received from the UNC NORC. Maintaining research cores across a range of disciplines, the UNC NORC will continue to serve as an interdisciplinary research translation engine to advance nutrition and obesity research.