NIH Adds Five Clinical/Translational Research Centers

Melinda Braskett is a pediatric and adult allergist who conducts research at UCLA's Food and Allergy Care Center. (UCLA Health System)

National Institutes of Health says it will provide $200 million to five U.S. health research centers to speed scientific discoveries into treatments for patients. The five-year grants are part of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, under the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at NIH.

CTSAs are now located at 60 institutions in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The five new institutions are:

– Pennsylvania State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey. Penn State’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute includes work in biomedical informatics and software to study genetics, epigenetics and systems biology.

– University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute is creating cross-disciplinary teams to address the cultural and economic diversity of Los Angeles County that poses challenges for health and disease research.

– University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City. Kansas’s Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research involves the community so that discoveries and research findings are more rapidly brought to the point of care, and promotes public/private partnerships for developing new drugs and devices.

– University of Kentucky, Lexington. At UK’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science has studies risk-related behaviors such as smoking, alcohol, drug abuse and obesity — all of which are major factors in the high rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in Kentucky and across Appalachia.

– University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. UMN’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute is developing an ongoing alignment with statewide health care organizations and insurers, electronic networks, special and rural community populations, the state department of health, and Mayo Clinic.

According to NCRR, the CTSA consortium has generated resources, such as a searchable database of potential industry partners to aid scientists seeking public-private partnerships to advance research into bedside applications. Another product of the consortium is a secure Web application to assist scientific teams with research data collection, sharing, and management.

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