The Washington University Planning Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Benign Urology is funded by the NIDDK (P20DK097798; 9/29/12-7/31/14) and is focused on “Biology and Pathophysiology of Urothelium in Bladder Disease.” 

Our overarching, long-term goals are to develop and integrate resources in basic and clinical investigation that will facilitate the rapid translation of breakthroughs in our understanding of the biology of bladder injury and repair from the preclinical to the clinical setting. The initial goal of the center is to plan and build an infrastructure that will lay the foundation for cutting-edge research in benign urological diseases and rapid translation into diagnosis, therapy and prognosis.

Our center is designed to bring together a multidisciplinary team of outstanding researchers with diverse areas of interest and expertise to formulate and establish a multi-pronged, systematic approach for investigating bladder injury and its effects in both mouse models and human patients. Our team includes practicing urologists, basic scientists and pathologists with interests in bladder infection, injury and repair processes; bladder pain, micturition and neurourology; urothelial stem cell homeostasis, activation and interactions with extracellular matrix; and high throughput collection and banking of clinical information and specimens.