The Trauma Research Center at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston is a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary research unit supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the United States' National Institutes of Health (NIH) It is in its seventh year of operation, and currently involves the research efforts of basic and clinical scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and The University of Texas, and the University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The Center's major focus is to elucidate the role of the gut in the pathogenesis of multisystem organ failure.