Administrative Core

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ADMINISTRATIVE CORE (AC) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Urinary stone disease (USD) is the second most costly urologic condition in the US, with an annual healthcare expenditure of more than $2 billion. Ureteroscopy (URS) via laser lithotripsy (LL) is the treatment of choice for USD. Recently, the introduction of high power/high frequency Holmium (Ho): YAG lasers and Thulium Fiber Laser (TFL) has fundamentally altered the clinical mode of operation in LL. Contemporary LL is often performed using dusting and pop-dusting modes that pulverize stone to dust in situ without the need for fragment extraction. However, there is an unmet need to develop approaches that can address some of the challenges of dusting and pop-dusting in order to significantly improve the clinical treatment outcome regardless of stone composition, shorten the procedure time, and lessen the risk of tissue injury. The proposed Duke FORWARD P20 Urology Center (Duke FORWARD Center) will tackle some of the most pressing problems in treating USD with LL. The Center's Research Project (RP) will focus on modifying the fluid medium to enhance the inherent cavitation or photothermal ablation mechanism for stone ablation during another critical clinical procedure, called pop-dusting, so that the treatment efficiency can be improved, while the procedure time and potentially collateral tissue damage will be reduced. The RP will be led by Po-Chun Hsu, a promising junior investigator new to USD research with expertise in nanotechnology for heat and thermal management that will be central to the RP's strategy. The primary goal of Duke FORWARD's Administrative Core (AC) is to guide and support the efforts of the Center's RP Team to successfully conduct their project and help prepare them to apply for future R01s. The Specific Aims of the AC are to: (1) Facilitate productive collaborations among the RP Team and with the broader CAIRIBU research community; and (2) implement a career development plan for RP PI Po-Chun Hsu for him to gain experience and mastery in USD research knowledge and technical capabilities. If the aims of the AC are achieved, the RP Team will have successfully accomplished the aims of their RP and will be in a position to submit one or more follow-on R01s by Year 3 of the proposed Center. In supporting the Center, the AC will facilitate innovative research with the potential to benefit millions of USD patients worldwide and will have introduced this talented new USD research team to the NIDDK-sponsored CAIRIBU benign urology research community.