Dr. Wessells Receives Renewed Funding to Help Understand Mechanisms of Bladder Dysfunction Study in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes

In continuation of a collaboration that began in 2008, Dr. Hunter Wessells, Professor and Nelson Chair of the Urology Department at the University of Washington alongside Dr. Aruna Sarma, Professor at the University of Michigan received funding from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases to seek deeper understanding of bladder control problems in individuals with type 1 diabetes. The $2.56 million of funding that was acquired permits the UroEDIC team to link existing information from a large study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Epidemiology of Diabetes Intervention and Complication to a new valuation of urinary symptoms, bladder dysfunction, and urine specimens for gene expression analysis. In order to expand existing knowledge about the natural history of bladder dysfunction in individuals with long-lasting type 1 diabetes, over twenty sites across the United States and Canada including the University of Washington, will contribute critical data in order to achieve this goal.