Center Funding

CNS/WH is funded primarily by two NIH Center grants. The first, which established the Center, is a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grant that is co-funded by the NIH Office of Research in Women's Health and by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The second, which permitted expansion of the Center, is a mind-body center infrastructure grant that is funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Women's Health and Functional Visceral Disorders Center
(P50 SCOR Center grant, ORWH and NIDDK co-funded)

The Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women's Health is composed of a cohesive group of clinical investigators and basic scientists with strong independent grant-supported research programs in the interactions between the nervous system and the viscera, with special emphasis on stress neurobiology, sex differences, and chronic functional disorders. The main focus of the Center is the identification of sex-related factors that play a role in the development, clinical manifestation, and treatment response of two common visceral pain syndromes, e.g. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Interstitial Cystitis (IC). Both disorders are common, occur more commonly in females, appear to show sex differences in treatment responses, and cause significant morbidity and impairment in quality of life.

The Center has two clinical and two basic science Projects, which closely interdigitate and overlap in terms of thematic, experimental approach and hypotheses. Thus, while the clinical Projects study sex differences in central stress circuit activation and peripheral outputs of these circuits in human patients with IBS and IC, the two basic Projects study animal models of both disorders. State of the art technology ranging from molecular biological approaches to functional brain imaging techniques are used to address the following specific aims in the four Projects:

1. Sex Differences in Central Stress Circuit Responsiveness in IBS and IC patients
2. Sex differences in the colonic responses to stress: Role of CRF pathways
3. Sex differences in neuroendocrine and immunologic responses in IBS
4. Sex differences in corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), noradrenergic function and oxytocin in cats with IC.

To facilitate this research, the Center has an Administrative Core and a Scientific Core (Neuroendocrine Measures) and takes advantage of existing NIH-funded core and service facilities on campus, including the CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center, the UCLA Brain Mapping Center and the GCRC. The Center provides an optimal environment for cooperation and collaboration among its investigators, who already have had a major impact on the field individually. Thus, the synergy from the Center has an even larger impact upon expanded research into a highly prevalent, but inadequately treated area of women's health.

Mind/Brain/Body Interactions in Stress Related Disorders (R24, NCCAM-funded)

Several common chronic disorders including chronic visceral and somatic pain syndromes, disorders of mood and affect, and addictive behaviors can be related to alterations in the neurobiology of the central stress system. Some of these disorders, including functional GI disorders, depression and anxiety are significantly more common in women, cause considerable morbidity and impairment in quality of life and satisfactory, cost-effective treatments are generally not available.

The UCLA Center for Neurovisceral Sciences & Women's Health (CNS/WH), a recently NIH-funded P50 Center has assembled a large number of clinical and basic investigators interested in Mind/Body interactions with a particular interest in the role of stress and sex-based differences in altering these interactions in health and disease. In view of many ongoing interdisciplinary and interdepartmental, as well as outside collaborations, spanning a wide range of molecular, behavioral, brain imaging and health outcomes studies, the infrastructure support grant has greatly expanded the breadth and depth of the existing center and leveraged the existing NIH center support. In the current application, we are therefore proposing the establishment of 4 scientific cores together with supplementary support for a small existing administrative core.

In addition, the R24 has enabled several developmental and public infrastructure components. During the first two years of the grant, each of the 4 research cores (Health Outcomes, Neuroimaging, Animal Models, Psychophysiology and Pain Assessment) has a few development projects attached to it. The primary goal of these projects is the development of novel, cutting edge expertise and technologies for each core. After the full build-up of the cores, a Pilot and Feasibility program will be initiated with 4 annual awards. These projects will utilize the resources of the cores as well as the expertise of the involved faculty. In addition, we will launch a career development program in the form of a Named New Investigator award limited to a maximum of 2 years.

Based on the unusual number of clinical and basic scientists interested in various aspects of Mind/Brain interactions in health and disease, this infrastructure support has greatly contributed to the visibility of Mind/Body medicine at UCLA, to the generation of the highest quality research, and to the training of first-rate translational researches in this emerging field.