Translational research bridges the gap between scientific discoveries and their application as new medical treatments or diagnostics.

One ultimate goal of basic research is to improve the health of humans. However, this is a complicated and time-consuming process, with many good ideas being left undeveloped in dusty laboratory books.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the major source of scientific funding, is committed to speed the development of new drugs, devices and therapeutics and has challenged universities to re-engineer the way they do research to result in greater successes and sooner. To accomplish this, the NIH released the CTSA program in 2006. 24 CTSA-funded academic centers have already been established with other universities are transforming themselves to compete. By 2012, the NIH expects to fund 60 such centers. More information can be found at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overview-translational.asp and http://www.ctsaweb.org/

Translational research is thought of in several different ways. The traditional example of translational research, "T1 translation", involves taking a discovery made in a laboratory ("the bench") to new drug or treatment in the clinic ("the bedside"). T2 translation is the implementation of results from clinical studies into everyday clinical practice and health decision making. These are very different goals and require different types of resources and expertise. T3 translation seeks to integrate evidence-based guidelines into health practice, through delivery and dissemination. T4 translation evaluates the "real world" health outcomes of translation in practice.

A specific example of T1 research would be Sir Alexander Flemings discovery of a mold that kills bacteria in a Petri plate to the development of penicillin as a useful antibiotic. Another example, more recent, is UTMB's Dr. Darryll Carney, who discovered potent thrombin peptides that were commercialized into wound healing drugs and non-healing bone fractures.

One example is a study that uses different methods of handwashing to reduce the risk of hospital infections.

The ITS is the new home for translational research at UTMB. It will be the major site for the UTMB ICTSA.

The conduct of translational research requires many different types of expertise. The MTTs are groups of individuals who work as teams on a common translational project selected by the ICTSA leadership. For example, in the case of penicillin, T1 research may require a basic scientist, chemists who understand principles of drug delivery and formulation, biostatisticians expertise in clinical study design, informatics/statistical analysis to analyze the data, and skill in knowing how to get drugs approved by the FDA. This scope of expertise is frequently beyond the capacity or resources of any single investigator.

The leadership of the ITS will have open competition for new ideas as well as pro-actively select translational projects for development. In general, these are topics where UTMB has strength or those that represent new opportunity, have alignment with UTMBs strategic directions, and require specific resources that ICTSA can provide. The application processes will be posted on the web site or further information obtained by contacting the ICTSA Director.