The Johns Hopkins University announced last week that
it has received an award of more than
$100 million spread over five years to initiate the
Johns Hopkins
Institute for Clinical and
Translational Research. The ICTR will be tasked with
enabling Johns Hopkins researchers to hasten
and improve the process of getting promising research from
the lab to the clinic and eventually to the
community.
"This grant is an acknowledgment of the breadth and
quality of clinical and translational
research here at Johns Hopkins and represents another
recognition of Johns Hopkins' commitment to
innovation," said Daniel Ford, vice dean for clinical
investigation at the School of Medicine.
The grant, supported by the Clinical and Translational
Science Awards, a program led by the
National Center for Research Resources, part of the
National Institutes of Health, will provide
support to more than 100 faculty members throughout the
university, including the schools of
Medicine, Engineering, Nursing and Public Health.
As a Clinical and Translational Science Awards
recipient, Johns Hopkins will join a consortium
aimed at transforming how clinical and translational
research is conducted at academic health centers
around the country. Currently, 12 centers make up the
consortium; this round of awards adds 12 more.
The funding is intended to allow academic medical
centers to form relationships within the
consortium as well as partner with outside organizations
involved with health care throughout the
nation. Contributions from Johns Hopkins and other schools
will enable the consortium to provide
enriched environments for training researchers to translate
their discoveries into clinical trials and
ultimately into practice.
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and
Translational Research will use consortium funds to
design new and improved tools for analyzing research data
and managing clinical trials; support
outreach to underserved populations, local community and
advocacy organizations, and health care
providers; assemble interdisciplinary teams of scientists;
and forge new partnerships with private and
public health care organizations, including pharmaceutical
companies, Veterans Administration
hospitals, health maintenance organizations and state
health agencies. "Here at Hopkins, and across
the nation, we are producing more basic science discoveries
than ever, but we have not been able to
translate as many of these discoveries to improving the
lives of those with diseases as we would like,"
Ford said. "Joining this national consortium and starting
the ICTR will allow us to deliver more health
to more people more rapidly."
The other academic medical centers joining Johns
Hopkins in this round of funding are Case
Western Reserve, Emory and Vanderbilt universities; the
universities of Chicago, Iowa, Michigan,
Washington and Wisconsin; Washington University in St.
Louis; University of Texas Southwest
Medical Center; and Weill Medical College of Cornell
University.
For more information on the Johns Hopkins ICTR, go to
ictr.johnshopkins.edu.