University receives $36 million NIH grant to spur innovation

To read more about the new center,
see this week's e-Scoop.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston a $36-million, five-year grant Oct. 3 to enhance clinical and translational research, ultimately improving patient care and community health.

With the federal funding, the UT Health Science Center will become home to one of the nation's first Centers for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), which will be constructed on the top floor of the Medical School Building. The health science center and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center partnered in planning the grant and will collaborate on many research and educational activities supported by the new center. The health science center also will work on collaborative projects with Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and The University of Texas School of Public Health's Brownsville Regional Campus.

The new center - the only one of its kind in Texas - will be designed to spur research innovation, so that new treatments can be developed more efficiently and delivered more quickly to patients.

"It is meant to improve the nation's health," said Dr. Frank Arnett Jr., professor of internal medicine and principal investigator and director of the CCTS. "This new program was created to advance the speed and sophistication of basic science findings to the patient care arena."

The health science center was one of only 12 academic medical centers in the country to earn a highly competitive Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) this year. The CTSA program is an NIH Roadmap for Medical Research initiative and will be administered by the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the NIH.

NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni said these 12 institutions make up a new, national consortium that will transform how clinical and translational research is conducted.

"The development of this consortium represents the first systematic change in our approach to clinical research in 50 years," Zerhouni said. "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."

Dr. Jerry Wolinsky, interim dean of the Medical School, said the grant award is a "wonderful success" for the school. "It is a program that needed to be instituted, and we are very pleased for the NIH support with funding in the first round," Wolinsky said.

-M. Raine