ICTR

The Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) at Johns Hopkins is requesting applications for the second round of Accelerated Translational Incubator Program (ATIP) grants. The deadline for applications is September 1, 2008. Any faculty member at Johns Hopkins University interested in starting a translational project is eligible to apply. Click here to download the ATIP application form, and click here or read after the jump to see the full request for proposals.

Program Focus/Overview:

The Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) project grant program is designed to accomplish the following objectives and goals:

1. To promote innovative translational research by providing starter funds that will support research projects specifically focused on the translation of laboratory and/or clinical research to patients. The ATIP program will focus on the ability to develop new therapeutics and medical devices, but will also be complemented by funding grant applications that could aid in the improvement of clinical trials, clinical data collection, and the application of epidemiologic studies to therapeutic outcomes. The program will also encourage the participation and/or training of new or inexperienced junior translational clinical scientists with an established team.
2. To employ a milestone-driven approach to research projects that will aid in the timely generation of tangible products and outcomes.
3. To explicitly deliver new drugs, devices, and/or diagnostics that will aid in the treatment and management of medical disease or to propel new interventions along the path from efficacy to effectiveness.
4. To promote cross-disciplinary collaboration of grant recipient labs, especially new and novel types of collaborations, through the use of mandatory monthly meetings among all funded investigators and members of Translational Core units. The program will encourage the participation of new and/or junior investigators.
5. To collaborate with ICTR-assigned Project Navigators and other advisors who will support the efficient attainment of milestones and assist in the translational process.

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Welcome to the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) at Johns Hopkins. The ICTR is funded by the National Institutes of Health as part of a national consortium of Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) .

This award, the largest single NIH award to Johns Hopkins in institutional history, is a significant acknowledgement of the existing scope and quality of our research and clinical care. It is also, however, a serious recognition of the difficulty of navigating basic science discoveries down an increasingly complicated path of academic, economic, regulatory, and administrative barriers. The ICTR is designed to support individuals and teams as they strive to move discoveries along this path and into medical usefulness.

Even as the NIH continues to bring new members into the CTSA consortium, the definition of the term "translational research" is still in flux and will no doubt be the subject for academic debate for a long time to come. Rather than become mired in that debate, the ICTR at Johns Hopkins has adopted a general, working definition of the term as our motto: where science and people connect.

One of the primary goals of the ICTR is to link you to the resources you need to translate your work into preventive strategies, treatments, and cures that will tangibly improve the quality of medical care. In the upcoming weeks, we will be using this site to introduce a wide range of services, utilities, and funding opportunities. I encourage you to check back frequently and subscribe to our email list so we can keep you connected.

Sincerely,

Daniel E. Ford, M.D., M.P.H.
Director

The ICTR has selected the recipients of the inaugural round of Advanced Translational Incubator Program (ATIP) grants. This pilot project program is designed to provide starter funds for innovative work that specifically focuses on translating laboratory and/or clinical research into the ability to better prevent, treat, or manage disease. By using ATIP funding to support these translational studies in their earliest phases, the ICTR plans to promote the development of new drugs, devices, and diagnostics that will directly improve patient care.

The following investigators were awarded between $65,000-$100,000 each:

• Ken Brady, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Anesthesia/Critical Care Medicine, for "Preventing Brain Injury in Premature Neonates by Monitoring Cerebrovascular Autoregulation"
• Susan Dorman, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, for "Pharmacokinetic Issues in the Use of Daily Rifapentine plus Moxifloxacin"
• Robert Getzenberg, PhD, Professor of Urology, for "Autologous Myoblast Injection Therapy for Urinary Spinchter Deficiency: Pre-Clinical Testing Study"
• Saeed R. Khan, PhD, Assistant Professor of Oncology, for "Design Synthesis and Evaluation of Candidate Proteasome Inhibitors that Prevent E6-Mediated p53 Degradation and Selectively Kill HPV+ Cervical Cancer Cells"
• Guy M. McKhann, MD, Professor of Neurology, for "Valproate and Neuroprotection in Aortic Surgery (VANAS)"
• Martin Pomper, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiology, for "Imaging infection with Radiolabeled Nucleoside Analogs"
• Steven P. Schulman, MD, Professor of Cardiology, for "Phenotypic Characteristics of Beta Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphisms in Health and Disease"
• Dan Stoianovici, PhD, Associate Professor of Urology, for "Intraoperative Ultrasound Imaging of the Prostate during Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy"
• Cornelia L. Trimble, MD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, for "A Pilot Study to Compare Intramuscular Injection with Particle-Mediated Delivery of a Therapeutic HPV 16 DNA Vaccine, in Patients with HPV 16+ Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia 2/3"
• Martha Zeiger, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, for "Differentiating Thyroid Tumor Classes through Analysis of Alternative Time Splice Variant Patterns"

Any faculty member at Johns Hopkins University interested in starting a translational project is eligible to apply for ATIP funding; junior faculty are particularly encouraged and will receive extra consideration. ATIP grants are for one year, with the possibility of a second year. The continuance and renewal of funding is dependent upon the achievement of specific, timeline-related milestones. Awards will be in the range of $25,000-$100,000 and may be used for support of laboratory clinical studies conducted at Johns Hopkins, including fellow and staff salary support, undergraduate or graduate stipends, and, with some restrictions, travel and equipment.

The application deadline for the second round of ATIP awards is September 1, 2008 (moved back from June 1). Please contact ICTR@jhmi.edu for more information and application materials.

A key program of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), the Accelerated Translation Incubator Program (ATIP) is a focused funding program designed to startup or facilitate new translational oriented research projects by clinical and non-clinical faculty at the Johns Hopkins University. It provides reasonable funds - up to $100,000 - to initiate, carry out and complete early or mid-stage projects designed to aid in the development of new therapies (e.g. small molecule, biological), devices or approaches to clinical research.

Complete information and application instructions can be found on the ICTR Wiki, or by clicking here:

ATIP - Request for Applications

(In order to access this secure link, you must be surfing from within Johns Hopkins, or connect to the Johns Hopkins VPN.)

Applications must be e-mailed by April 1, 2008 to ICTR@jhmi.edu.

There was a gathering of the Department Chairs of the School of Medicine this past Wednesday December 5, to hear about the mission and proposed programs of the ICTR. Dean Ed Miller introduced Dan Ford, the ICTR's Director, who spoke about the ICTR and then solicited the Chairs for departmental/divisional liaisons to the ICTR: faculty who were involved in Clinical and Translational research, who could help to connect the Hopkins community with the ICTR by being a first point of contact and a source of information about ICTR services.

You can view the videocast of this event by clicking here.

You can also view the slides used by Dr. Ford in his presentation by clicking here.

If you're a Johns Hopkins faculty member who is interested in being a liaison to the ICTR and involving yourself more in the work of the Center, we urge you to contact your Department Chair, and/or e-mail the ICTR.

On October 17, Dan Ford, MD, MPH - the Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation and ICTR Principal Investigator - spoke to the faculty and students of the Johns Hopkins Welch Center as part of their Clinical Research Grand Rounds series. He spoke about the emerging plans for the ICTR, and offered a glimpse of some of the services that the ICTR might begin to offer in the coming year.

You can view the slides from Dr. Ford's lecture by clicking here.

Hopkins to receive NIH funds for center

$40 million to aid turning research into treatment

By Chris Emery | Sun reporter September 19, 2007

The Johns Hopkins University will receive about $40 million in new federal funds over the next five years to help translate promising research into medical treatments, school officials announced yesterday.

The funds, from the National Institutes of Health, will be used for a new center: the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.

The center will be part of a national consortium of 24 institutions that NIH began funding last year in hopes that collaboration among scientists will speed the development of medical breakthroughs.

Hopkins officials said the university received one of the largest awards among the 12 new institutions added to the consortium this year.

"As a powerhouse of research, Johns Hopkins will be a very strong partner in the consortium," said Dr. Barbara M. Alving, director of the NIH's National Center for Research Resources.

The NIH award totals about $100 million, but more than half of it replaces funding for research projects that were set to be renewed, said Dr. Daniel Ford, vice dean for clinical investigation at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Still, the money represents a shift in NIH's priorities, led by director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, toward promoting translational research, the kind of scientific enterprise that produces tangible results for patients.

Ford said the structure of the funding will force Hopkins and other institutions to work together and become more organized in their approach to medical science.

The new system also will encourage collaboration among scientists who focus on basic laboratory experiments and clinical researchers who work with patients.

"We act in an uncoordinated ways sometimes," Ford said. "We may have one researcher at Bayview and one at Johns Hopkins Hospital who are working on a similar problem but don't deal with each other."

In addition to funding experiments, Hopkins plans to use the money to build an infrastructure that encourages collaboration, Ford said. The institution also plans to train scientists how to lead research efforts involving people from different sub-specialties.

"We evolve into these highly technical units," he said, "but we also need the infrastructure and people whose job it is to cross those bridges."

NIH's Alving stressed that Hopkins will share what it finds to work best in translating research into practice with the 23 other academic health centers receiving the funds.

"They will bring a lot of firepower to the consortium," she said of Hopkins.

Ford said he hopes the funding strategy will strengthen the medical science establishment in the United States, but he is waiting to see if the mandated collaboration works.

"It's a big idea and a big plan," Ford said. "And hopefully, it won't collapse under its own weight."

(This is a copy of the news release put out by Johns Hopkins Public Affairs.)

JOHNS HOPKINS JOINS NATIONAL CONSORTIUM TO SPEED RESEARCH FROM CLINIC TO COMMUNITY

The Johns Hopkins University announced today that it has received an award of more than $100 million spread over five years to initiate the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). The ICTR will be tasked with enabling Johns Hopkins researchers to hasten and improve the process of getting promising research from the lab to the clinic and eventually to the community.

“This grant is an acknowledgement of the breadth and quality of clinical and translational research here at Johns Hopkins and represents another recognition of Johns Hopkins’ commitment to innovation,” says Daniel Ford, M.D., vice dean for clinical investigation at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The grant, supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA), a program led by the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health, will provide support to more than 100 faculty members throughout The Johns Hopkins University, including the schools of Medicine, Engineering, Nursing and Public Health.

As a CTSA recipient, Johns Hopkins will join a consortium aimed at transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted at academic health centers around the country. Currently, 12 academic medical centers across the United States make up the consortium; this new round of awards adds 12 more centers to the consortium.

This funding is intended to allow academic medical centers to form relationships within the consortium as well as partner with outside organizations involved with health care throughout the nation. Contributions from Johns Hopkins and other schools will enable the consortium to provide enriched environments for training researchers to translate their discoveries into clinical trials and ultimately into practice.

The ICTR will use consortium funds to design new and improved tools for analyzing research data and managing clinical trials; support outreach to underserved populations, local community and advocacy organizations, and health care providers; assemble interdisciplinary teams of scientists; and forge new partnerships with private and public health care organizations, including pharmaceutical companies, the Veterans Administration hospitals, health maintenance organizations and state health agencies.

“Here at Hopkins, and across the nation, we are producing more basic science discoveries than ever, but we have not been able to translate as many of these discoveries to improving the lives of those with diseases as we would like,” says Ford. “Joining this national consortium and starting the ICTR will allow us to deliver more health to more people more rapidly.”

The eleven other academic medical centers joining Johns Hopkins in this latest round of consortium funding are Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio; Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.; University of Chicago in Illinois; University of Iowa in Iowa City; University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas; University of Washington in Seattle; University of Wisconsin in Madison; Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.; Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; and Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York.

For more detail on Johns Hopkins and the other 2007 award winners, visit: The CTSA Consortium Directory

For more information on the Johns Hopkins ICTR, visit: http://ictr.johnshopkins.edu

Welcome to the online home of the new Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research!

As we implement this exciting new initiative here at Johns Hopkins, this website will be your source for news and information relating to the Institute, the many services it will offer, and the ways we are partnering with the NIH and other CTSA institutions to revolutionize clinical and translational research, educate new generations of skilled clinical researchers, and speed the pace of medical discovery.

Please feel free to check back often for updates, or subscribe to our news feed, below. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress!