The George M. O'Brien Kidney Center at Yale sought to foster basic science, translational and clinical research relevant to kidney disease and was home to a host of different services.
After 15+ years of service, the O’Brien Center recently closed but one of its main cores, the Animal Physiology and Pathophysiology Core remains.
Pat Preisig, PhD, professor of medicine (nephrology) and of cellular and molecular physiology, continues to direct the Animal Physiology and Pathophysiology Core. “Nothing has changed in terms of workflow or services offered; the only difference is that the core is now an independent core rather than under the umbrella of the O’Brien Center,” Preisig explained.
The core profiles the kidney’s role in homeostasis, i.e., how the body maintains a stable internal environment in response to external changes. Profiling is done using either the whole animal (mice) or blood or urine samples obtained from control and experimental models of disease that are created by Yale and non-Yale investigators. The outcome is a phenotypic description of kidney function in the model.
The portfolio of services provided by the core includes electrolyte, creatinine, and albumin concentrations, and osmolality on plasma, serum, or urine samples; BUN on serum samples; 13 different parameters on whole blood samples; blood pressure, heart rate, and circadian CV patterns in awake animals over a 14-day period; and survival, transdermal glomerular filtration rate (GFR), allowing GFR to be monitored in a single animal over time to profile disease progression.
Core staff also offer a wide range of administrative services, including assistance with study design, data analysis, methodology text for grants and publications, and letters of support for grant applications.
Over the past 10-15 years, the core served many investigators across Yale School of Medicine, including most sections within the Department of Medicine, Orthopaedics, Psychiatry, Immunobiology, Pathology, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and Pharmacology. The core also serves clients from outside of Yale, many of whom were served by the O’Brien Center and whose services have now been carried over to the current core.
Core staff include core director Preisig, core manager Lonnette Diggs, and Junhui (Hui) Zhong. As the manager, Diggs is responsible for running the assays, sample collection, “and everything else,” said Preisig. Zhong performs all surgical procedures, including the establishment of disease models, chronic, awake BP studies, and transdermal GFRs. “Zhong is a very good surgeon and does a lot of the surgical work required to set up preclinical models and assays,” explained Preisig.
Preisig herself began her career as a nurse. She did her training at Travis Air Force Base in California, where she worked with many Vietnam veterans in renal failure, in part due to their traumatic injuries. She had always been interested in renal disease, so after several years working as a critical care and trauma nurse, she went back to school and completed a master’s in nephrology nursing. She now holds two appointments at YSM, professor of medicine (nephrology) and professor of cellular and molecular physiology.
For more information on services offered by the Animal Physiology and Pathophysiology Core, or to place a work order, please visit Animal Physiology and Pathophysiology Core.
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