Unprecedented $76 million grant to speed discoveries from labs to lives
(May 29, 2008) UC Denver has received a $76 million, five-year grant to speed biomedical discoveries from laboratories to the lives of citizens. The grant from the National Institutes of Health is the largest research and training award in the state’s history. The money will be used to create a statewide network of research, health care and community facilities. These groups, working together as the new Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute – or CCTSI –will turn biomedical findings into improved patient and community health.
The CCTSI will combine and coordinate the efforts of research scientists, health care providers, and advocates from six health care professional schools, five hospitals, a health care network, more than a dozen community health organizations and a research university.
“We’re going to have the right scientists doing the right research on the diseases that are important to the people of Colorado,” said pediatrician Ronald Sokol, MD, a School of Medicine physician who will direct the CCTSI. “We plan to convert discoveries into treatment, prevention, lifestyle changes and education.”
In a ceremony at the UC Denver School of Medicine’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Gov. Bill Ritter praised Colorado’s “many outstanding medical and bioscience research facilities.”
“We’re extremely pleased the federal government has selected this outstanding collaborative of Colorado institutions to receive such an impressive grant award,” Ritter said. “The close ties among Colorado’s world-class institutions provide a unique opportunity to spark unprecedented innovation in the cost, quality and availability of health care across Colorado and the nation.”
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar described the grant as another step in solidifying the University of Colorado Denver’s reputation.
“The University of Colorado Denver has long been recognized as a pioneer in the field of biomedical research,” Salazar said. “And now, as a result of this boost in federal funding, the university will have more resources to dedicate to maintaining its position among the upper echelon of biomedical research institutions in the world, while developing better programs to get new medical discoveries to the public faster.”
The institute will build a regional partnership among the UC Denver Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Public Health, Graduate School and College of Nursing, as well as CU-Boulder, University of Colorado Hospital, The Children's Hospital, Denver Health, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, the Denver Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
“A unique feature of this consortium of health care and research institutions is the diversity of the populations served,” said Sokol. “Research conducted through the CCTSI will include rural, urban, Hispanic, African-American, Native American, all socioeconomic levels and the full life cycle of the population served – pregnant women and infants through the elderly. Working with the other Clinical and Translational Science Award recipients across the country should enable the CCTSI to take full advantage of discoveries both here and elsewhere and disseminate best practice approaches into Colorado communities in a rapid and efficient manner.”
The institute will also create teams through financial stimulus. The CCTSI will use part of its NIH support to fund pilot research grants, but those grants will only go to laboratory scientists who pair themselves with clinical scientists.
“The ideal team for a pilot award would be a basic scientist, a clinical scientist and a community scientist,” Sokol added.
The CCTSI expects to create jobs, though the number of jobs depends on the success of the research, Sokol explained. In any case it will “be money coming back to the state from the federal government,” said Sokol. “It will be putting people to work.”
Congressman Ed Perlmutter, whose district includes the Anschutz Medical Campus, called the facility “an economic driver.”
“The jobs created here have had a positive impact on Aurora, the Denver metro area, the state of Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountain region,” Perlmutter said.
Bruce Benson, president of the University of Colorado system, praised the collaboration between so many public and private institutions.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without strong public-private partnerships,” Benson said. “Our common good is served by these types of partnerships and they should be pursued whenever possible.”
With this $76.1 million award, UC Denver joins 14 new and 24 current CTSA recipients in a national consortium of institutions moving discoveries from labs to lives.
“For us at the University of Colorado Denver, this award is a special one, not only for its size and relative rarity,” UC Denver Chancellor M. Roy Wilson, MD, MS, said. “This award is a special acknowledgement of what we strive to do every day – using the unique gifts our university has to offer to improve the lives of our community both locally and globally.”
Photos: Top, from left, Congressman Ed Perlmutter, Ronald Sokol, MD, Sen. Ken Salazar, Gov. Bill Ritter and Dean Krugman, MD. Center, Chancellor M. Roy Wilson, MD, and University of Colorado President Bruce Benson joined the press conference via video from Grand Junction.