NIH Awards U-M $55 Million for Translational Research Initiative

Daniel Clauw Photo: Paul Jaronski

The University of Michigan has received a $55-million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health to support a new University-wide initiative in interdisciplinary research aimed at improving human health.

Translational research takes promising discoveries from the laboratory and moves them to the clinic where they can be tested for use in patients. It’s the often-missing link between traditional biomedical research and medicine.

The five-year grant is the third-largest NIH award in the University’s history. Competition for CTSA grants is intense. With this award, the U-M becomes part of the national CTSA consortium made up of 24 leading academic medical centers in the United States. When fully implemented in 2012, the consortium will include about 60 institutions.

The Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research — directed by Daniel Clauw (M.D. 1985), professor of internal medicine — is the administrative umbrella for the grant. Many U-M schools, colleges, institutes and divisions are participating in CTSA-driven initiatives through the institute.

“A Clinical and Translational Science Award is the superhighway of the NIH roadmap — it’s the ultimate resource an institution needs to deliver cures and treatments to our patients,” Clauw says. “The U-M has been building infrastructure for nearly five years. We are ready to use the award to help people do their best research, as well as to attract people who weren’t previously thinking about a career in clinical or translational research.”

The initiative grew out of an NIH commitment to re-engineer the nation’s clinical research enterprise, one of the key objectives of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.

—Sally Pobojewski and Mary Beth Reilly

For an expanded version of the story: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/ctsa.htm