The SBMU Urology & Nephrology Research Center (UNRC) was established in 1999 in Labbaffi Nejad Hospital, and was then relocated to an independent building next to that same hospital.
The UNRC has begun its mission in order to find diagnostic, treatment, and follow-up problems in urology and nephrology diseases.
In order to prevent any personal and stylistic bias in research and planning, two research proposals were initiated in order to find the problems in front of the urology and nephrology diseases as follows:
- Conducting needs assessment in order to find prevalent diseases;
- Setting priorities, which would determine the most important three diseases based on their prevalence and problem-causing in order to allocate budget and facilities for them
Based on the above assessments, three groups of the patients were chosen to be on the list of the research priorities as follows:
- A-Urinary tract cancers, with the priority given to bladder cancer due to its prevalence and high mortality and incapacitations they provide;
- B- Urinary tract stones and the related interventional aggressive treatments due to their prevalence and high expenses, and their high recurrence rate;
- C- Renal failures, and kidney transplantations, due to their high prevalence, and extensive researches about kidney transplantation in Iran
Along with the above research lines and methods, there seemed to be a need for basic, cellular, and molecular researches, and also utilizing impressive advancement in stem cell and Nano-Technology; therefore, Cell & Molecular Research Section was formed at the center which has been solely responsible for reconstructing damaged tissues in the urinary tract system.
The Cellular- Molecular Lab started its work from 2007 with the collaboration of the Royan Institute and others for establishing the Cell-Molecule Culture Lab. Upto now, there have been more than 14 research programs on urinary tract system and sexual organs completed or are under completion at the lab, the following of which may be named:
