Clinical and Translational Science Award

Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is a type of U.S. federal grant administered by the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA program began in October 2006 with a consortium of 12 academic health centers. When the program is fully implemented in 2012, the consortium will comprise 60 grantee institutions and their partners. ^[1]

Program overview

The CTSA program helps institutions create an integrated academic home for clinical and translational science with the resources to support researchers and research teams working to apply new knowledge and techniques to patient care. The program is structured to encourage collaborations among researchers from different scientific fields.^[2]

The CTSA program has raised awareness of clinical and translational science as a discipline among academic and industry researchers, philanthropists, government officials and the broader public.^[3]

Strategic goals

CTSA consortium leaders have set five broad goals to guide their activities. These include building national clinical and translational research capability, providing training and improving career development of clinical and translational scientists, enhancing consortium-wide collaborations, improving the health of U.S. communities and the nation, and advancing T1 translational research to move basic laboratory discoveries and knowledge into clinical testing. ^[4]

Selected research areas

Institutions funded by the CTSA program are working with other research facilities to improve drug discovery and development. For example, several consortium institutions are collaborating with the Rat Resource and Research Center at the University of Missouri to increase the speed of drug screening so that drug research is translated into clinical uses more quickly.^[5] Consortium institutions also are creating new fields of study or new uses for technologies. For example, researchers at the University of Rochester are pioneering the field of lipidomics, exploring how lipids affect human disease. Their work has led to lipid research collaborations among experts in community and preventive medicine, proteomics, nutrition, and pharmaceutical research.^[6]

Some CTSA institutions are collaborating with community based organizations to ensure research is translated successfully into clinical practice. Researchers at Duke University are working to prevent strokes by partnering with a local health care program to build stroke awareness among Latino immigrants.^[7]

Others are pursuing public and private partnerships to speed innovation. For example, the Oregon Health and Science University and Intel are developing new wireless devices with sensors to detect symptoms in patients who have diabetes or those at high risk of stroke so they can be treated earlier.^[8]

Participating institutions

With the most recent awards, announced in July 2011, the consortium comprises 60 institutions in 30 states and the District of Columbia.^[9] These include:^[10]

• Albert Einstein College of Medicine (partnering with Montefiore Medical Center)
• Boston University
• Case Western Reserve University
• Columbia University
• Children's National Medical Center
• Emory University (partnering with Morehouse School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Duke University
• Georgetown University with Howard University
• Harvard University
• Indiana University School of Medicine (partnering with Purdue University and University of Notre Dame)
• Johns Hopkins University
• Mayo Clinic
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• Medical University of South Carolina
• Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• New York University School of Medicine
• Northwestern University
• Ohio State University
• Oregon Health & Science University
• Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
• Rockefeller University
• Scripps Research Institute
• Stanford University
• Tufts University
• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• University of California, Davis
• University of California, Irvine
• University of California Los Angeles
• University of California, San Diego
• University of California, San Francisco
• University of Chicago
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Colorado Denver
• University of Florida
• University of Kansas Medical Center
• University of Kentucky Research Foundations
• University of Massachusetts, Worcester
• University of Michigan
• University of New Mexico Health Sciences
• University of Minnesota
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Iowa
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
• University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• University of Texas Medical Branch
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
• University of Utah
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin - Madison
• Vanderbilt University (partnering with Meharry Medical College)
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Washington University
• Weill Cornell Medical College (partnering with Hunter College)
• Yale University

References

1. ^ National Institutes of Health (Sept. 17, 2009). "Re-engineering the Clinical Research Enterprise: Translational Research". http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overview-translational.asp. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
2. ^ National Institutes of Health (Jan. 26, 2010). "Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (U54)". http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-10-001.html. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
3. ^ Society for Clinical and Translational Science (May 22, 2009). "Presidents Letter". https://www.ctssociety.org/Home/PresidentsLetterMay2009/tabid/71/ItemId/0/Default.aspx. Retrieved June 29, 2010. 
4. ^ National Center for Research Resources (Fall 2009). "NCRR Fact Sheet: Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/pdf/ctsa_factsheet.pdf. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
5. ^ National Center for Research Resources (Fall 2009). "NCRR Fact Sheet: Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/pdf/ctsa_factsheet.pdf. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
6. ^ National Center for Research Resources (Fall 2009). "NCRR Fact Sheet: Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/pdf/ctsa_factsheet.pdf. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
7. ^ National Center for Research Resources (Fall 2009). "NCRR Fact Sheet: Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/pdf/ctsa_factsheet.pdf. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
8. ^ National Center for Research Resources (Fall 2009). "NCRR Fact Sheet: Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/publications/pdf/ctsa_factsheet.pdf. Retrieved June 18, 2010. 
9. ^ National Institutes of Health (July 22, 2011). "NIH Announces Five New Clinical and Translational Science Awards". http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2011/07_22_2011/story8.htm. Retrieved July 22, 2011. 
10. ^ Clinical and Translational Science Awards Consortium (September 7, 2011). "CTSA Institutions". http://www.ctsaweb.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showPartInstList. Retrieved September 7, 2011. 

External links

• Clinical and Translational Science Awards: Advancing Scientific Discoveries Nationwide to Improve Health
• CTSA consortium
• National Center for Research Resources