Urologic Diseases Research Updates
Fall 2009
Director of NIDDK Urology Programs Nyberg Retires
Leroy M. Nyberg Jr., M.D., Ph.D., senior urology adviser
and director of urology programs at the National Institute
of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
(NIDDK), retired September 2009 after 31 years of Government
service. He spent 21 years at the NIDDK.
During his career, Nyberg published more than
90 scientific publications and about 100 abstracts
and helped train dozens of future scientists
and clinicians. He was awarded the National
Institutes of Health Director’s Award for contributions
to and development of the NIDDK
Urology Program and the American Urological
Association’s Distinguished Contribution Award
for “outstanding contributions to the science and
practice of urology.”
“Lee was instrumental in devising, promoting,
and overseeing many landmark clinical
studies and trials that changed the treatment
of common, consequential, and costly urologic
conditions,” said Robert Star, M.D., director of
the NIDDK’s Division of Kidney, Urologic, and
Hematologic Diseases.
Nyberg oversaw the Medical Therapy of Prostate
Symptoms trial, which showed that a combination
of finasteride and doxazosin—two drugs
for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia—is
more effective than either drug alone. Other
clinical studies for which he served as program
director or scientific officer include the Urinary
Incontinence Treatment Network, the Interstitial
Cystitis Clinical Research Network, the
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
for Urinary Symptoms clinical trial, and the
Research in Vesicoureteral Reflux trial. Nyberg
was also project officer for Urological Diseases in
America—a compendium on the epidemiology,
costs, and impact of urologic diseases—the Rand
Interstitial Cystitis Epidemiology Study, and the
Boston Area Community Health Study.
Nyberg began his research career at Columbia
University, where he earned a doctorate studying
androgen and estrogen receptors in the rat prostate.
After graduate school, he returned to his
home state to attend medical school at the University
of Massachusetts. He intended to extend
his graduate research into medicine by specializing
in endocrinology, but a variety of factors, “too
many to enumerate,” according to Nyberg, led
him to the fields of surgery and urology.
After years of academic study, Nyberg said he
joined the Navy Reserves to “see the world.”
While he was at the NIDDK, the Navy called
him to active military status to help set up a tent
hospital in the Saudi Arabian desert, where he
was in charge of the urology clinic.
Before coming to the NIDDK in 1988,
Nyberg held faculty positions at The Johns
Hopkins University; the Medical University of
South Carolina in Charleston, later serving as
urology chief at the affiliated Charleston Memorial
Hospital; and the University of Connecticut
School of Medicine. Additionally, he served as
chief of urology at the VA Medical Center in
Hartford, CT.
As for the future of urology, Nyberg sees new
therapies on the horizon for troublesome bladder
disorders that are not effectively treated. “There
are numerous basic science advances in the
study of the bladder that will soon translate into
the clinic,” he said. Specifically, he mentioned the identification and characterization of
uroplakins—key proteins involved in the regulation
of the cells lining the urinary tract—and
bacterial “pods,” which sequester bacteria from
antibiotics and allow infection to persist.
“What I will miss most about working for
NIDDK is seeing the excitement of new
investigators getting their first big grant, major
publication, or academic promotion,” said
Nyberg. “Sending people off on a productive and
rewarding research career was the most enjoyable
part of my job.”
Nyberg currently resides in the historic Bolton
Hill area of Baltimore, where he is actively
involved in community relations with the
nearby Maryland Institute College of Art.
Nyberg’s retirement plans include lots of hiking
and honing his photography skills. He also plans
to volunteer at a community health clinic.
NIH Publication No. 10–5743
December 2009
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