As announced on June 14th, five new centers at major universities will receive $200 million over five years from NIH as part of the expansion of the national “Clinical and Translational Sciences Awards” (CTSA) Consortium. This program led by NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is now in its fifth year. The CTSA Consortium has been able to generate a searchable database of potential industry partners to aid scientists seeking public-private partnerships to help take their research to the next level. At the same time, they have been able to develop a secure web application to help scientific teams collect and share research data.
“The CTSAs support the innovation and partnerships necessary to bridge the traditional divides between basic research and medical practice,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “The combination of resources and collaboration made possible by these awards is essential for developing and delivering new treatments and prevention strategies.”
With these new awards, NIH is funding a total of 60 CTSA institutions in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The five new Clinical and Translational Science Institutes that received the current funding are:
• Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute ($27.3 million)—To expand collaborations beyond the boundaries of biomedicine informatics and develop new software solutions to study genetics, epigenetics, and systems biology. Partner with industry, and capitalize on novel tools in information technology to collect, share, mine data, and disseminate new knowledge
• UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute ($81.3 million)—To develop ways to retain, recruit, and empower scientists to work together across disciplines, language barriers, cultures, departments, institutions, and geography to improve the health status of the people in Los Angeles
• University of Kansas Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research ($20 million)—to promote innovative public and private partnerships to develop new drugs and devices and integrate patient-centered health and health systems outcomes into evidence-based risk models to help physicians in clinical care
• University of Kentucky, Lexington Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences ($20 million)—To promote collaborations to develop novel drugs and medical devices, to do joint pilot studies, and develop strong programs in community-based participatory research.
• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities ($51 million)—The Biomedical Health Informatics initiative at the university will provide networked clinical data and biospecimen resources while training future informatics scholars
For more information on these CTSA awardees go to www.ncrr.nih.gov/ctsa2011. The CTSA consortium web site with information on the consortium, current members, and new grantees, can be accessed at www.CTSAweb.org.
