DAta | National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

ID	Title	Body
240	University of California, San Diego Clinical Translational Research Institute	La Jolla, California Principal InvestigatorGary Steven Firestein, M.D., University of California, San Diego Website The goals of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI) are to: Provide an academic home for the discipline of clinical and translational science; Establish an integrated educational pipeline to train and support clinical and translational scientists; Develop a robust clinical research infrastructure that replaces silos with integrated research; Enhance bioinformatics capabilities that leverage unique UCSD resources; Develop novel technologies to improve research, such as biomarker and imaging; Form a Translational Research Alliance with research institutes and industry; and Form a Community Alliance with community physicians and the general public to translate scientific discoveries into best practices, increase research into health care disparities and involve the general public in biomedical science. CTRI will transform education in clinical and translational science by coordinating disparate programs, providing breadth of education from high school through predoctoral students, and providing training to postdoctoral fellows and faculty. The institute also will transform the conduct of clinical research by providing guidance and support from initial planning through data analysis and sharing. The new structure will foster development of novel technologies to facilitate clinical research and provide support for the services and resources necessary to conduct clinical investigation and improve health. CTRI will place a special emphasis on several areas of strength, such as imaging, biomarkers, community outreach and the translation of basic science discoveries to clinical science.
239	University of California, Los Angeles Clinical and Translational Science Institute	Los Angeles, California Principal Investigator Steven M. Dubinett, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles Website The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is an academic-clinical-community partnership designed to accelerate scientific discoveries and clinical breakthroughs for improved health. The cultural and economic diversity of Los Angeles County poses challenges for health and disease research. The CTSI is creating transdisciplinary teams focused on these challenges and community health needs. The CTSI mission is to create a borderless clinical and translational research institute that brings UCLA innovations and resources to bear on the health needs of Los Angeles. To accomplish its mission CTSI has established five goals: Create an academic home for clinical and translational science that integrates the many strengths of UCLA and its partners; Build transdisciplinary research teams to translate discoveries for improved health; Transform educational and career development programs to promote the next generation of clinician investigators and translational scientists; Expand strong bidirectional academic-community partnerships to ensure that new scientific discovery is relevant to community needs; and Serve as a national resource for collaborative research through regional, statewide and national CTSA Program consortia. CTSI will reach underrepresented populations and develop translational strategies for health improvements nationwide.
238	University of California, Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Science	Irvine, California Principal Investigator Dan M. Cooper, M.D., University of California, Irvine Website The University of California, Irvine (UCI) Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) is designed to identify, test and implement innovative ways to break down barriers that impede biomedical discovery. The overarching vision of ICTS is to: Nurture novel collaborations by building multidisciplinary research teams, such as chemists and clinicians exploring breath biomarkers in the human “ventilome.” ICTS experts in team science will work with investigators to identify and remove obstacles to successful collaboration. Create new research tools by assessing new technologies for clinical investigators including iophotonics and microdevices, ubiquitous computing for field research, approaches for qualitative and comparative-effectiveness research, and metrics of human performance that link genomic information with dynamic disease phenotypes. Share information by bringing together clinicians, hospital information technology staff and UCI scholars in the Center for Biomedical Informatics. Infrastructure for clinical data interoperability is embedded in the data warehouse. Engage our community by championing new approaches such as PEER (Participant Experience Enhancement in Research), a program that views research volunteers as partners in the process of discovery. Research outreach and dissemination activities are targeted to a variety of timely health care issues, such as mitigating elder abuse and preventing sudden death in pediatric athletes. Train clinical and translational researchers by sponsoring Crossing Boundaries, a set of degree and certificate programs along with mentorship interaction that tackles key issues in translational science. Finally, UCI is working with regional academic centers to actualize the CTSA Program vision of collaborative translational science throughout Southern California.
237	University of California, Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center	Sacramento, California Principal InvestigatorLars Berglund, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Davis Website The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) is proposing to create a Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) that will transform its medical research enterprise into a highly effective open academic home for clinical and translational research by building on three key assets: A long-standing commitment as a land-grant university to serve the geographically dispersed and ethnically diverse populations of inland and northern California with a health care system enabled by one of the broadest and most extensive telecommunications programs in the world; The collaborative culture of UC Davis, which has one of the most extensive and interdisciplinary life science environments in the country; and An established CTSC pilot facility — the UC Davis Clinical Research Investigator Services Program (CRISP) — that serves as the physical home for clinical and translational research, and for faculty training and career development. CRISP is a fundamentally important CTSC testing ground where many perceived CTSC barriers have been explored and solutions have been tested. Through CRISP, UC Davis has completed the planning phase for CTSC. In the structure of CTSC, considerable attention is paid to create an organization that is: Responsive and familiar to investigators; Flexible; Well linked to university leadership, participating academic units and the community; and Focused on the goal of reducing barriers and facilitating the translation of research gains into medical practice. Key features are an education program focused on team science, extensive collaborations across UC Davis colleges and centers, introduction of catalyst functions such as collaborative research facilitators and translational postdoctoral fellowships, dissemination through teletechnology, flexible use of resources for patient-oriented research, and a community engagement program emphasizing trust and respect. CTSC is under the leadership of two co-principal investigators supported by a team of directors and co-directors that oversees each of the nine CTSC programs, and a comprehensive committee structure, designed to firmly anchor the CTSC with institutional leadership, faculty, trainees and the community. CTSC will be implemented through a carefully designed collaborative plan, and the activity will be guided through continuous evaluations and corrections.
236	University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Translational Research Institute	Little Rock, Arkansas Principal Investigator Laura P. James, M.D., University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Website The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) established the Translational Research Institute (TRI) to synergize its clinical and translational research programs and to fully align its institutional research endeavors with the goals of the CTSA Program. TRI has four locations: UAMS, UAMS Northwest, Arkansas Children’s Hospital/Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System. TRI unites UAMS' five colleges and graduate school to establish an integrative center that transforms the pace, effectiveness and quality of translational research, resulting in better health for all Arkansans. During the initial funding cycle, TRI became a “change agent” for translational research across the hub and provided education and training for faculty and staff. As a result, a new home for translational researchers was established. Biomedical informatics faculty built a state-of-the-art information management platform for clinical research studies and developed secure platforms to share electronic health record data. Multidisciplinary research teams were formed to address the health needs of Arkansans. Community-engaged research teams helped to incorporate broader stakeholders’ perspectives into study design, leading to new, federally funded programs addressing the health needs of diverse populations. The statewide health challenges provide TRI researchers an opportunity to conduct research of variable populations. The vision for the institute is to serve as a collaborative network for translational research that promotes health and reduces disease. The mission remains to catalyze translational research initiatives that will accelerate and disseminate biomedical discoveries to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness.
235	University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Clinical and Translational Science	Birmingham, Alabama Principal InvestigatorRobert Kimberly, M.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Website The vision of the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) is to transform the university's environment by building productive and efficient interdisciplinary research teams through educational ingenuity, regulatory reorganization, resource coordination and methodological innovation. The mission is to develop a transformative infrastructure that spans the spectrum from preclinical research to bench-to-bedside translation to community implementation. This center builds upon a long-standing collaborative network that involves Historically Black Colleges and Universities and underprivileged communities in its region. Using the community health advisor model, UAB CCTS investigators have a strong record of NIH- and CDC-funded community-based participatory research involving the Alabama “Black Belt,” one of the nation's most underserved areas. Further, in collaboration with Alabama's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, they have built an extensive network for training the next generation of health disparities researchers. CCTS will provide the crucible to bring these activities to the next level. Through its innovative “One Great Community” component, CCTS will support three community incubators (Urban Lay, Health Professionals, and University), as well as a Research Incubator to insure the bidirectional flow of information between the lay and the research communities that will generate new knowledge at the intersection between science and community needs.
234	Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute	Boston, Massachusetts Principal InvestigatorHarry P. Selker, M.D., M.S.P.H., Tufts University Website Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is based on the conviction that authentic involvement of the entire spectrum of clinical and translational research is critical to meeting the promise and the public’s needs for biomedical science. This involvement includes not only bench to bedside (“T1”) translation, but also translation into effective clinical practice (“T2”), care delivery and public health (“T3”), and health policy (“T4”). Tufts CTSI’s 39 strategically chosen partners include 12 Tufts University schools and research centers, 10 Tufts affiliated hospitals, three additional academic institutions (Brandeis University, Northeastern University and RAND Corp.), nine community-based organizations (spanning health centers, public health organizations, physician networks and the Boston Museum of Science), and five industry partners (including three health plans). These partners share a joint mission: to promote research that will have an impact on health through translational research and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Together, they have outstanding and cooperative resources, opportunities and education across the T1–T4 spectrum.
233	Spectrum: The Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research	Palo Alto, California Principal InvestigatorHarry B. Greenberg, M.D., Stanford University Website The mission of Spectrum: The Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research is to transform the academic research setting to improve support for clinical and translational research and education. Spectrum’s programs extend from the earliest phase of basic scientific discovery to final implementation of these discoveries in the population. The Center streamlines the translation of basic innovations into practical solutions that maintain and improve human health, and it educates new generations of clinical and translational research leaders. Spectrum also nurtures entrepreneurial researchers to translate discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside and into the community. By 2018, Spectrum aims to: Educate a new generation of investigators with the multidisciplinary skills to conduct cutting-edge clinical and translational research. Spectrum will change medical research training from a narrow, discipline-specific exercise to a more interdisciplinary team approach. Trainees will learn the language, processes and tools used throughout the translational pipeline. Create an institutional home to translate the most innovative discoveries of our basic, translational and clinical scientists into products and processes that directly improve human health and well-being. Spectrum’s institutional environment will allow researchers to identify and then support those discoveries that are most ready for translation. Develop and implement resources and services to more quickly translate discoveries into better human health while simultaneously reducing operating costs. Spectrum will ensure that investigators receive the necessary clinical trials, informatics, statistics, regulatory, ethics and administrative support to maximize their productivity and include diverse populations in research.
232	Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute	Los Angeles, California Principal Investigator Thomas A. Buchanan, M.D., University of Southern California Website The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) promotes, supports and conducts research and training designed to improve health in diverse communities and to increase efficiency and effectiveness of clinical and translational research. The SC CTSI is a partnership among the University of Southern California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, and more than sixty health-oriented community organizations. They work together with an overarching theme of diversity – of communities, clinical settings and academic disciplines – to achieve six main goals: Engage stakeholder groups to establish clinical research priorities; identify barriers to research; and develop, demonstrate and disseminate innovative approaches to assure fully partnered clinical research across communities and the lifespan Build multidisciplinary research teams to address health needs and research challenges; identify and disseminate best practices in team building, including methods to support distributed (“virtual”) clinical and translational research teams Expand the clinical and translational workforce by training researchers, staff members, clinicians and community partners in team-based research with special emphasis on diverse populations Streamline processes to support safe, efficient, high-quality local and multicenter clinical and translational research, in particular in diverse clinical and community settings Employ and develop innovative informatics solutions to enhance clinical and translational research, to integrate research and clinical care in pursuit of learning health systems, and to integrate research and community health in pursuit of healthy communities Participate in activities of the national CTSA network, conduct multisite studies, adopt successful models from peers, and develop and disseminate innovative approaches for clinical and translational research The SC CTSI’s seven core groups – Clinical Research Support, Community Engagement, Workforce Development, Clinical Research Informatics, Research Development, Digital Innovation and Communication, and Evaluation and Improvement – provide a vast array of expertise and resources in support of clinical and translational research and training locally, regionally and nationally.
231	South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute	Charleston, South Carolina Principal InvestigatorKathleen Theresa Brady, M.D., Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina Website The goal of the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR) is to create a sustainable home at the Medical University of South Carolina to advance clinical and translational research as a distinct discipline and facilitate collaboration across other disciplines. The overall approach focuses on implementing advances in biomedical science to create opportunities for discovery; removing barriers to link knowledge, experience and expertise across disciplinary boundaries; providing training and mentoring experiences for clinical and translational researchers with diverse training and backgrounds; and fostering community engagement with a rapidly growing underserved population to improve health outcomes and research participation. Joining the national CTSA consortium will accelerate progress by facilitating: Development and interoperability of biomedical informatics systems; Active exchange of best processes and practices in evidence-based medicine and community engagement Advancement of clinical and translational science as a discipline and career path; and Shared knowledge, experience and collective influence in setting regional and national research agendas and health policy designed to generate the transformative results envisioned by the NIH Roadmap. SCTR will bring together scientists, clinicians and the lay community to address diseases that commonly impact the citizens of South Carolina. SCTR will coordinate resources and expertise statewide in efficient, innovative approaches to research. Through SCTR, a new generation of researchers will be trained to work across multiple disciplines in collaboration with community members so that scientific discovery is relevant to the public.

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