Neuro-Urology and urology Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center, Boston, Ma

We are a group of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded labs at the BIDMC in Boston, working to discover the causes behind distressing problems related to urination. These ‘lower urinary tract symptoms’ range from the inconvenient (needing to go to the bathroom often), to the painful and debilitating (interstitial cystitis, bladder pain syndrome), to the life-threatening (outlet obstruction).

Our scientists and doctors are approaching this broad group of pathologies from two directions - ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’

Our ‘top down’ research involves state-of-the-art techniques aimed at understanding the brain and how it controls continence i.e. when and how we urinate. This is our neuro-urology focus area.

‘Bottom up’ involves our investigations of the bladder itself - including the muscle (or detrusor) which contracts to expel the urine; the delicate lining of cells on the inside of the bladder (the epithelium or urothelium); and even the connective tissue between the two other layers where most of the blood vessels lie. This is our benign urology focus area (since we do not study cancer) and collectively our investigators belong to The Laboratory of Voiding Dysfunction.

We use mice, which in many cases have been genetically engineered to allow us to explore in great detail the neural connections, and indeed which subsets of neurons are involved in controlling urinary continence. Other kinds of mice allow us to study the consequences of diabetes, or of urinary obstruction, or of altered bladder filling sensation. All of these allow us to model important human diseases as we seek to find ways to improve patients’ health and quality of life.