UK’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science unites clinicians, researchers, and communities to accelerate the translation of basic science discoveries into real-world treatments.
Center co-director Dr. Philip Kern told WUKY during one of the center’s events that pharmaceutical companies may be the ones with their names on medicines, but the journey to the shelves starts years before in the minds and labs of researchers — who, in turn, require funding.
“These drugs are manufactured by a drug company, but the discoveries all came from the NIH-funded research,” he said.
Since 2011, the Clinical and Translational Science operation at UK has received close to $100 million from the NIH. The award is one that only 65 institutions in the country currently hold. And UK is an even smaller company — 34 — when it comes to institutions holding NIH awards in translational science, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The newest award will fund a number of projects, ranging from an effort to bring same-day test-and treat models for hepatitis C to health departments in Appalachian counties to expanding the university’s biomedical informatics, data science program, and biospecimen bank into a statewide network — helping identify genetic factors in disease.