Translational Research Toolkit (2014)

Providing the best care for our children and our communities means ensuring that the most up-to-date scientific research findings are translated directly into clinical healthcare as practiced on a daily basis.

The goal of translational research is to “transform scientific discoveries arising from laboratory, clinical, or population studies into clinical applications to reduce [disease] incidence, morbidity, and mortality.” (National Cancer Institute, Translational Research Working Group). In other words, translational research allows for new evidence-based scientific findings to be disseminated to the public, health care workers, and others for implementation and utilization.

Translational research covers a full continuum from basic science discovery, to the formation of stakeholder partnerships, to budgetary considerations, and dissemination to healthcare providers and the community at large. In the final stage, research findings and information are widely adopted by the public, patients, and clinical practitioners.

Heathcare Providers Families and Caregivers Example Practices

Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science

The Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science (CTRIS) will serve as a strategic focal point for implementation science, translation research in community settings, a research agenda that addresses both domestic and global health inequities, and research training for a workforce to achieve these goals. CTRIS will also serve as a key point-of-contact to other Institutes and Centers within the National Institutes of Health, governments, federal agencies, and strategic partners engaged in linking new knowledge generation to clinical practice outcomes. A website for the Center has not yet been developed; however, the Center is housed in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health

Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS)

BTRIS is a resource available to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intramural community allowing investigators to access research data, develop streamlined mechanisms for protocol reporting and data analysis, and reuse data for hypothesis generation and collaboration. The BTRIS website links to several presentations focused on informatics in biomedical and translational research. The lecture series brings leading ﬁgures in the study and use of translational information systems from academic centers across the U.S. and promotes discussion about the future of informatics. (Accessed February 2014)

Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, National Institutes of Health

NIH Common Fund

The NIH Common Fund was enacted into law through the 2006 NIH Reform Act and is designed to support cross-cutting, trans-NIH programs. To date, the Common Fund has been used to support a series of short term, exceptionally high impact, trans-NIH programs (Accessed February 2014)

Institute of Translational Health Sciences

About Translational Research

This section of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences’ website provides introductory information on translational research, including descriptions and examples of the various translational research phases. (Accessed February 2014)

Ohio State University Medical Center

Translational Research

This section of the Ohio State University Medical Center’s website contains basic information about translational research, covering the four research phases (T1-T4) between scientific discovery and bedside practice. (Accessed February 2014)

National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

Translational Science: Bridging the Gap

Appearing in Benchmarks (Volume 6, Issue 1), this article provides a broad overview of translational research through a question and answer format. It discusses translating scientific findings, defines translational research, gives an example of how translational research can be utilized to establish new therapies, and how translational research can become more effective. (February 2006)

Translational Research Working Group (TRWG)

TRWG was established in the summer of 2005 to develop recommendations about how the National Cancer Institute (NCI) can best organize its investments to further translational research. This site includes links to definitions, diagrams, and charts that define translational research. The site also links to the June 2007 TRWG final report Transforming Translation – Harnessing Discovery for Patient and Public Benefit which puts forth an optimized translational research model and offers recommendations about how NCI can achieve its future vision for translational research. (Accessed October 2014)

Division of Clinical Innovation, National Center for Advancing Translational Science, National Institutes of Health

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

NCATS is one of the newest National Institutes of Health (NIH), Institutes and Centers (ICs). The center was established to transform the translational science process. The center differs from NIH’s other IC’s in that its focus is on the translation of research to bring about noticeable improvements in health. NCATS’s Division of Clinical Innovation (DCI) is the home of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA). In addition to the administration of the CTSAs, the DCI division is primarily responsible for the planning, conducting, and support of research across the clinical phases of the translational science spectrum.

Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA)

Launched in 2006, the CTSA grant program – led by the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) – is designed to create academic “homes” for clinical and translational science at research institutions across the country. Consortium members aim to reduce the time it takes for laboratory discoveries to become treatments for patients, to engage communities in clinical research efforts, and to train clinical and translational researchers. (Accessed June 2010)

CTSA Fact Sheet

This fact sheet provides additional information about the CTSA program, identifying the overarching strategic goals that guide consortium-wide activities. (Summer 2011).

National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health

Division of Developmental Translational Research (DDTR)

DDTR supports programs of research and research training with the ultimate goal of preventing and curing mental disorders that originate in childhood and adolescence. The mission of DDTR is to translate knowledge from basic science to discover the developmental origins of mental disorders and effect their prevention and cure. This site describes DDTR’s focus as translating research in accordance with mental health priorities in three key areas: neurobehavioral mechanisms responsible for development of psychopathology, trajectories of risk/ illness, and the design and testing of innovative and preventive treatment interventions. (Accessed February 2014)

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health

Children and Clinical Studies

This website contains resources for parents and caregivers addressing the importance of research in kids, rights of families in studies, and addresses common questions of parents and caregivers. (Accessed February 2014)

Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Center

The Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Center (PCTRC) was established in July 2008 and is the result of a collaboration among the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Foundation, and the Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Pediatrics. The center offers researchers at the institution:

Inpatient nursing services
Outpatient Nursing Services
Pediatric TN Study Coordinators
Bio nutrition Services

OCTRI is mostly funded by the National Institutes of Health, Clinical and Translational Science Award. Additional support comes from the Oregon Health and Science University and Kaiser Permanente. (Accessed February 2014)

Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI)

DTMI is an integrated support structure that provides resources and training and facilitates collaborative research in clinical and translational research. DTMI is committed to child health research; specifically being “a pioneering pediatric academic enterprise that enhancing the health of children by fostering therapeutic discovery through collaborative clinical and translational research.

Specific objectives of DTMI’s child health research project are to:

conduct pediatric clinical and translational research so evidence-based therapeutics are available to children;
expand the pediatric research training and mentoring for students, residents, pediatric fellows, and junior- and mid-career faculty so they can become future leaders in pediatric clinical and translational research; and
disseminate results of pediatric clinical and translational research through publications and meetings so that the care of children is improved through these study findings.

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) includes a Community Engagement Component (CEC) designed to translate information from the academic world to the community and back. The goals of CEC are to bring knowledge about current health research to community members (both lay and professional) and to identify the health concerns of the community and help meet them through research and education programs.

Through its school-based science education program CATCH, as well as podcasts of interest to both academic and community listeners, CEC brings CCTS programs and findings to the community. Its Community Advisory Board helps CEC identify the public’s concerns about health enabling it to target those areas for research.