UMass Medical School has received a highly competitive renewal of its Clinical and Translational Science Award. The $17.3 million award has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for an additional four years, Chancellor Michael F. Collins has announced.
“In a time of tightly constrained federal resources, support for the clinical and translational science research infrastructure so critical to our future success is a key priority. This is why we are so pleased to announce this very important grant renewal,” Chancellor Collins said.
Under the leadership of its principal investigator, Katherine Luzuriaga, MD, director of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science, vice provost for clinical and translational research and global health, and the inaugural recipient of the UMass Memorial Health Care Chair in Biomedical Research, the CTSA has been critical to helping UMMS maximize the impact of its research on the health of local communities and the region.
“As part of an elite group of prominent research institutions working to move laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients; engage communities in clinical research; and train a new generation of researchers, the five-campus UMass CCTS is a strongly collaborative partnership across the commonwealth that is having real impact on public and community health,” Collins said.
“The renewal of the CTSA is an important validation of our strongly collaborative partnership with UMass Memorial, which has played a key role in supporting and nurturing clinical and translational sciences,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the school of medicine. “With the renewal, our important work in this area can continue on the trajectory outlined in our academic health sciences center strategic plan.”
Investments in clinical and translational research infrastructure and outreach have had a substantial impact on the UMMS mission in areas such as population health, RNA biology, gene therapy, diabetes, cardiovascular health, bioinformatics and neurotherapeutics.
“We have become more integrated and interdisciplinary and our work in community engagement, cross-campus collaboration and faculty development has been enhanced by these investments,” Collins said. “With this renewal, the NIH has recognized the success of these investments and challenged us to move forward aggressively.”
“This is an important validation of the work of so many individuals on this campus and across the UMass system, especially Dr. Luzuriaga and the UMass CCTS leadership committees and core directors,” Dr. Flotte said. “Just as importantly, the faculty here at UMMS and across the system who have embraced the challenge to accelerate the translation of fundamental discoveries into the clinic should be proud of the work they are doing to create new networks of clinical research and health care delivery in central New England and foster and promote careers in clinical and translational research.”
