Researchers are building a computerized model that could inform new, highly targeted, and less painful treatments for people with lower urinary tract conditions.

With support from a $3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Zachary Danziger, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the FIU College of Engineering and Computing, and his colleagues will use the model to investigate how the nervous system and urinary tract are connected.

They want to understand how electric stimulation of certain specific nerves could help people struggling with underactive bladders — one of the most common lower urinary tract problems without many treatment options — caused by different factors, such as aging, neurological disorders, Parkinson’s disease and more.

We are looking to come up with a theory that says, ‘If you do this to the nervous system around the bladder, then this will happen in the bladder,’” said Danziger, principal investigator of the grant at the College of Engineering and Computing. The nervous system controls many functions in the body, including the urinary tract.

Read more at FIU News.