About the University of Washington Clinical Nutrition Research Unit

The Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (CNRU) has been designed to promote and enhance the interdisciplinary nutrition research and education at the University of Washington.  By providing a number of Core Facilities, the CNRU attempts to integrate and coordinate the abundant ongoing activities with the goals of fostering new interdisciplinary research collaborations, stimulating new research activities, improving nutrition education at multiple levels, and facilitating the nutritional management of patients.  Five Core facilities are available for use by Affiliate Investigators, who are broadly dispersed throughout several Schools and numerous departments and divisions within the University of Washington.

The objectives of the CNRU are:

• To promote multidisciplinary interactions in nutrition research by providing an attractive and nurturing environment designed to increase productivity, enhance efficiency, and generate new ideas through organized interdisciplinary collaborative efforts and dissemination of research information among scientists and clinicians of various backgrounds;
• To integrate, coordinate, and foster interdisciplinary collaborative studies among investigators interested in nutrition at the University of Washington;
• To provide initial support for young investigators or those new to the field of nutrition, and to stimulate the application of knowledge from related fields to the study of problems in clinical nutrition; and
• To improve education in nutrition research and in the practice and principles of clinical nutrition for medical students, students in allied health professions, housestaff, and practicing physicians.

The five Cores are:

1. A Laboratory Core to provide investigators with cost-efficient state-of-the-art nutritional assays and to help with methods development;
2. A Clinical Research and Data Management Core to provide investigators assistance with facilities, dietitians, biostatistical help, and food record coding;
3. A Body Composition and Energy Expenditure Core for body measurements in rodents;
4. A Nutrient Gene Core for obtaining and development of animal models; and
5. An Administrative and Enrichment Core responsible for the day-to-day administration of the CNRU.  This Core also arranges a series of seminars, retreats, and visiting professorships, and administers the Pilot and Feasibility and New Investigator Programs aimed at stimulating nutrition research by junior investigators and by more established investigators new to the field of nutrition.