(Philadelphia, PA) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine $68 million over the next five years, along with The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Institutional commitments of $30 million bring the Philadelphia consortium's total to nearly $100 million.
In addition to the Philadelphia collaboration, 11 other academic health centers throughout the nation are receiving these awards. An additional 52 institutions are receiving planning grants to help them prepare applications to join the consortium. When fully implemented in 2012, about 60 institutions will be linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science.
NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, today announced the launch of this national consortium that will transform how translational biomedical research is conducted. This new consortium is funded through NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs). "The development of this consortium represents the first systematic change in our approach to clinical research in 50 years," says Zerhouni. "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."
"This award to the School of Medicine and its collaborators will help us use our biomedical research and medical education programs to benefit our patients even more greatly," says Arthur Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean, School of Medicine. "It will enhance the development of interdisciplinary structures designed to foster and facilitate research and education in the emerging discipline of translational medicine."
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Contact: Karen Kreeger
karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5658
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
3-Oct-2006