Mission

The mission of our ICTSA is to facilitate innovative team-based translational research that impacts human health. In so doing we will provide a training and mentoring environment for a new generation of translational investigators that embraces rigorous and ethical scientific principles with community involvement. The Institute for Translational Sciences (ITS) is a newly created institute whose goals are to broadly enhance the scope and conduct of translational research at UTMB and its neighboring institutions. We are in an exciting phase of growth in translational sciences; the designation of the ITS is an indication of the university's strategic commitment to translational science.

Currently we think of translational research in terms of type (T)-1, -2 or -3 translation. 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. T3 translation seeks to integrate evidence-based guidelines into health practice, through delivery and dissemination. Each translational research type has different objectives and needs. The ITS will seek to serve these different missions.

Finally, we are increasingly aware that the optimal approach to translational research involves effective communication. Basic scientists provide clinicians with new tools for use in patients and, in turn, clinicians provide basic scientists with feedback on how these tools work. Similarly, dialog with community representatives identifies new opportunities for translational research and increases its impact; and for this reason the ITS will seek to facilitate communication between basic scientists, clinicians, subjects and the community.
Therefore, the goals of the ITS are to:

1. Facilitate translational research as a discipline at UTMB;
2. Stimulate the application of postgenomic tools in the conduct of translational research and monitor their effectiveness;
3. Proactively catalyze multidisciplinary translational teams;
4. Develop training programs in translational research at all levels of graduate training;
5. Facilitate productive communication in translational research amongst faculty, subjects and the communities they live in;
6. Interface with the national CTSA consortium.