July 17, 1986 –Seven-term Republican Illinois representative, George O’Brien, dies from prostate cancer.
1987 — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) solicits the George M. O’Brien Urology Research Centers (P50) as specialized centers of research into urologic diseases.
February 2007 — The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases sponsors the Workshop on Advancing Urologic Science and Career Development. From this meeting, the NIDDK seeks to enhance the Urology O’Brien Center program to expand regional, national, and international collaborations.
2012—O’Brien Urology Centers transition to Cooperative Research Centers Program (U54) to coordinate research efforts between funded centers and integrate the Centers with the wider research community.
Sept 2013 – Mayo Clinic Rochester becomes one of the first Urology O’Brien Centers funded by the NIDDK (PI, John Lieske, MD)
December 2013 — NIDDK staff host the Urology Program Directors’ Meeting to bring together the directors, project directors, and fellows of the U54 O’Brien Centers, the P20 Exploratory Centers for Interdisciplinary Research in Benign Urology, and the K12 Urology Career Development Programs. The meeting promotes resource-sharing and interactions between the Centers and Programs.
Sept 2014 – UW-Madison (PI, William Ricke, PhD) and Columbia University (PIs, Cathy Mendelsohn, PhD, Jonathan Barash, MD, PhD, and Ali Gharavi, MD) get Urology O’Brien Centers with renewals in 2019 and 2020, respectively
Sept 2016 – University of Pittsburgh gets a Urology O’Brien Center (PI, Zhou Wang, PhD)
2018 — The Urology Program Directors’ Meeting transitions to annual CAIRIBU meetings to more formally promote interactions and collaboration between the Centers and Programs.
Sept 2020 — Following a successful pilot, the CAIRIBU (U24) Interactions Core (PI, Kristina Penniston, PhD) is established to foster knowledge and resource exchange, promote research collaborations, and increase the number and diversity of benign genitourinary investigators and trainees while providing organizational leadership and engage with NIDDK Program Officers.
Sept 2021 – Stanford University gets a Urology O’Brien Center (PI, James Brooks, MD)
Aug 2025 — The CAIRIBU Interactions Core is renewed for another 5 years; the CAIRIBU Community now includes not only investigators and trainees from the U54 Urology O’Brien Centers but also those from P20 Urology Centers and urology-focused K12 Career Development Programs.