Kyle Wood, M.D., assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Urology, has been awarded a K08 grant by the National Institutes of Health. The K08 grant is a five-year, NIH-mentored clinical scientist research career development award titled “Obesity and Endogenous Oxalate Synthesis.”
There has been increasing prevalence in both kidney stone disease and obesity throughout the United States, especially in the Southeast. This grant will evaluate the role of oxalate, a main component of the most common type of kidney stone.
The Department of Urology’s Kidney Stone Research Laboratory has demonstrated that, with an increase in body mass index, there is an increase in the body’s creation of oxalate. Understanding these associations and mechanisms may lead to future therapies.