NIH Funds Digestive, Metabolic & Kidney Disease Research Education Program at MCW

The Medical College of Wisconsin has received a five-year, $273,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to create an education program for medical students that focuses on digestive, metabolic and kidney diseases, with a special emphasis on training a diverse healthcare workforce to address these diseases.

Kevin R. Regner, MD, associate professor and interim chief of the division of nephrology; and Michael B. Dwinell, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, are the co-primary investigators of the grant.

The incidence of digestive, metabolic and kidney disease in the United States is growing. According to the National Institutes of Health, one in ten American adults has some type of chronic kidney disease. Digestive disease sends 51 million Americans to the doctor every year.

The Digestive, Metabolic and Kidney Disease Research Education Program at MCW will expose first and second year medical students to state-of-the-art basic and translational research, specifically in the areas of digestive, metabolic and kidney disease. Those experiences will be reinforced through education and mentoring, provided in a Learning Community model, to emphasize careers in academic science. The program will employ an immersion model of training and education.

Students will receive rigorous research experiences during a summer session spent with MCW investigators. The participants in the program will also be paired with clinical mentors to gain early career exposure to NIDDK-relevant clinical specialties.

The overarching goal of the program is to educate and train a diverse workforce to address the nation’s research needs in digestive, metabolic and kidney diseases that impact human health.