PITTSBURGH, Oct. 3 The University of Pittsburgh is among the first institutions selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive a Clinical and Translational Science Award, joining 11 other academic health centers in a new consortium that aims to transform how clinical and translational research is conducted so that promising treatments can be more readily available to patients.
The award means that Pitt will receive a total of $83.5 million over five years to establish the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), which will foster the development of clinical and translational research as a distinct field and promote the application of biomedical research advances into clinical practice. The award is one of the largest NIH grants the University has ever received.
The CTSI will be led by Steven E. Reis, M.D., associate vice chancellor for clinical research, Health Sciences, and will include Pitt's schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the Graduate School of Public Health; the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Carnegie Mellon University; RAND Corporation; the Intel Research Pittsburgh lab; and as a community partner, the Urban League of Pittsburgh.
"The development of this consortium represents the first systematic change in our approach to clinical research in 50 years," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "Working together, these sites will serve as discovery engines that will improve medical care by applying new scientific advances to real world practice. We expect to see new approaches reach underserved populations, local community organizations and health care providers to ensure that medical advances are reaching the people who need them."
Institutions competing for the awards were required to "build academic homes for clinical and translational science" through an infrastructure that would consolidate their existing resourc
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Contact: Lisa Rossi
RossiL@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
3-Oct-2006