Who we are ― in brief
The Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity-related Diseases through Dietary Molecules (NPOD). The NPOD was launched in August of 2014 as a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) with support from the nation’s premier health research agency, the National Institutes of Health. Scientists in the NPOD combat the most eminent threat to the health of U.S. citizens ― obesity and related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Two out of three Americans are overweight or obese and cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Researchers from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) have joined forces to devise consumer friendly strategies for decreasing the risk of obesity and related diseases through manipulating nutrient-dependent cell signals. The NPOD is guided to success by the following scholars and units.
- Accomplished and visionary leadership by center director and associate director
- An external advisory board, composed of internationally renowned biomedical scientists
- A dynamic administrative core, supporting an NPOD coordinator, two Ph.D. level biostatistics and bioinformatics coordinators, and a large-capacity, high-speed computational facility and two Ph.D. level staff
- A group of top talent assistant professors & project leaders, pilot grant recipients, seed grant recipients, and veteran mentors for the project leaders
- Cutting edge core molecular biology, bioinformatics and biostatistics core facilities, staffed by a Ph.D. level director and two research technologists
In addition to combating the obesity problem, the NPOD provides first class educational and research opportunities for students, thereby contributing to the workforce development in the United States. Strategic alliances have been formed with the following initiatives.
- Nebraska Gateway to Nutrigenomics
- NPOD-affiliated service providers