Overview
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) serves as the intellectual and geographic home for clinical and translational research at UIC. The CCTS has been fundedby the National Institutes of Health via a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) since 2009.The CCTS now serves as the institutional home for clinical and translational research by coordinating resources and services that facilitate health research and advance knowledge across the translational spectrum.
As one of the few U.S. universities with the full range of health science colleges- including the largest medical college in the country- UIC has provided fertile ground for the establishment and growth of the CCTS. UIC’s location in the heart of Chicago allows the CCTS access to a variety of diverse community groups, helping ensure that research advances are relevant to and used by populations most in need. Through strong institutional support, the CCTS is a focal point for developing and nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations that will help to advance the university’s clinical and translational research enterprise.
The goal of the CCTS is to accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into innovative diagnostics and therapies, disease prevention and improved health care delivery with a special emphasis on reducing health disparities.To accomplish this, the CCTS offers expanded services and resources for investigators conducting health research including infrastructure support, funding, and a curriculum for clinical-translational research training.
The CCTS Administrative Offices are centrally located in the Medical Center Administration Building in close proximity to the seven Health Sciences Colleges at UIC. This central location makes CCTS infrastructure support easily accessible to interested researchers. The CCTS provides a single point-of-access for investigators. An Investigator Interface Coordinator and Core Coordinators are available to assist new and experienced investigators in accessing resources and developing effective collaborations for translational research.
CCTS Research Services
To provide support for health research at all stages of the translational spectrum, the Center offers a variety of consultative services:
Biostatistics Core
The CCTS's Biostatistics Core provides consultative services to clinical-translational investigators in the conceptualization, design, conduct, and analysis of their research studies. The Biostatistics Core provides campus researchers with expanded access to faculty and service personnel with a range of expertise in design and analysis methods and tools. They support the professional development of analytics specialists across campus to increase the availability of quality design and analytic services and to engage quantitative faculty in developing new methodologies for clinical and translational research.
In addition to consultative services, the Biostatistics Core also encourages the development of collaborative research arrangements between investigators and our team of biostatisticians. Through such collaborations, the core aims to contribute substantially to translational research inquiries and the development of novel methodologies.
Clinical Research Center
The Clinical Research Center (CRC) is committed to providing UIC health investigators, trainees, and support staff a research environment and broad range of services that are conducive to the conduct of high quality, timely and efficient clinical and translational research. The CRC strives to facilitate clinical-translational research in a predictable and reproducible fashion.
The CRC provides a comfortable, safe, and effective environment to conduct research involving human subjects. Investigators may utilize the personnel and facilities at the Clinical Research Center or request research support to occur beyond the walls of the center.The expertise and resources offered by the CRC can help investigators who lack the research capabilities necessary for a particular protocol. They have- or can obtain- the physical resources needed to bring specialized studies to fruition.
The CRC also functions as the liaison between UIC investigators and the CTSA Trial Innovation Network. The Trial Innovation Network focuses on operational innovation and excellence to execute trials better, faster and more cost-efficiently. The CRC will work with local study teams to expedite clinical trials to develop harmonized processes and increase quality and efficiency.
Biomedical InformaticsCore
The Biomedical Informatics Core provides the informatics infrastructure, clinical research data resources, and informatics services required for theefficient, effective multi-directional flow of information among basic, animal, human, and public health researchers.
The Biomedical Informatics Core manages UIC’s Clinical Research Data Warehouse (CRDW), a researchdata repository that provides a single, secure, managed release point for human subjects’ data for use in research. The CRDW has a research patient repository that stores and integrates human subjects’ data- including protected health information and personally identifiable information- from various sources that can be used to derive data-marts for clinical, translational and basic research purposes. Customized data extracts are available via the CRDW’s front-end repository, UIC CIRCLE, including demographic, diagnosis, procedure, lab values and medication information for patients seen at UI Health and Mile Square clinics.
Biomedical Informatics services also help researchers obtain clinical de-identified data for aggregate patient counts through a self-service tool, QUICKSet. Built using the i2b2 framework, QUICKSet pulls de-identified data on over 600,000 patients from UIC CIRCLE in an easily accessible data store that can help determine study feasibility.
Regulatory Support Core
The Regulatory Support Core aims to provide centralized, accessible regulatory advice and guidance. Regulatory consultationsadvise investigators on the administrative activities involved with meeting the regulatory requirements for research involving human subjects. This core serves as a liaison between the IRB, FDA, investigators, and research staff at UIC and outside institutions. They can also provide education and training sessions on the practical application of Good Clinical Practice activities for campus investigators and support staff.
Recruitment, Retention and Community Engagement Program
The Recruitment, Retention and Community Engagement program provides high-quality education, training, and consultation on evidence-based participant engagement approaches across a broad range of community and clinical research studies.
Services offered seek to improve investigator skills in effective and culturally competent communications about research opportunities, study objectives and informed consent, as well as increasing outreach and engagement with disparity populations including racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, LGBT, low-income, and rural communities. This program also supports capacity building for academic and community partners engaging in community-based research and translational science, and disseminates best practice models to local and national partners.
The Recruitment, Retention and Community Engagement program also manages the CCTS Recruitment Toolbox. The Recruitment Toolbox provides researchers and staff easy access to tools and resources in order to create recruitment flyers, announcements, and advertisements for study recruitment and enrollment.Program leadership also lend their expertise in tailored messaging for “special populations,” including: LGBTQ, older adults, urban youth, racial/ethnic minorities, ad ESL or non-English speaking populations.
Dissemination and Implementation Research and Policy Program
The Dissemination and Implementation Research and Policy Program's (DIRPP) mission is to foster unique university-community-policy partnerships to promote the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based health programs and services. DIRPP draws on theories of organizational and community context to promote effective and sustainable health policies and practices. Working in collaboration with the Recruitment, Retention and Community Engagement program, DIRPP supports the extensive pool of UIC researchers who address the health needs of the community, particularly the health needs of our urban youth.
DIRPP consultations focus on research and policy issues, as well as the collaborative partnerships with community and policy stakeholders. This program can help prepare UIC investigators, community, and public policy stakeholders for the effective use of evidence-based practices when disseminating and/or implementing research in community settings.
Research Navigation Service
The Research Navigation service wascreated to help UIC clinical-translational research investigators and study coordinators find the information and resources needed to navigate research ideas through the university system. The Research Navigator helps guide investigators through a complex research landscape in order to access the right resources at the right time.
In addition to developing a plan to maneuver through UIC’s unique research infrastructure and linking investigators to the people and tools they require for successful research, the Navigator also manages the web-based Research Navigation Map, which investigators can utilize remotely for self-guided support.
UICentre
UICentre is the academic drug discovery initiative at UIC. This campus-wide program centers on collaborative engagement designed to stimulate the application of pharmaceutical and translational knowledge in order to generate novel therapeutic compounds.
UICentre joins individuals from UI, pharma, bioventures, and others possessing knowledge and experience in chemical, pharmaceutical, and translational research with biomedical and clinical primary inventors at UIC. They aim provide and support project-based collaborations focused on the discovery of novel chemical entities as viable clinical drug candidates.Projects are created by exploiting critical mass at UI in areas of excellence, to create and support Incentive grants focused on treatment and eradication of specific diseases. Two campus-wide RFAs are performed on a yearly basis in order to form multi-PI translational research grants and feed the pipeline for Project-Based Discovery.
Translational Technologies at UIC’s Research Resource Center
UIC's translational research resourcespromotethe use of, improveaccess to, and provideexposure and training in state-of-the-art technologies and resources for clinical and translational research.
The CCTS collaborates with theResearch Resource Center (RRC)tooffera large array of shared resources that support a broad spectrum of translational research. Through this center, interdisciplinary translational research and team scienceispromoted through a single campusportal,integrating instrumentation and support staff expertise.By incorporating new technologies in the areas of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, imaging, drug discovery, and clinical analysis of biospecimens, we can further support the resources available for translational research.
The RRCalso supports a large, shared computing cluster, UIC Extreme, which supports all aspects of data analysis, research, and teaching. Additionally, RRC offers an institutionally housed central and secure biospecimen repository- the UI Bioreposity- for archived tissue and fluid biosamples.
CCTS Research Education and Careers in Health (REACH) Program
The Research Education and Careers in Health (REACH) program offers innovative inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary educational offerings that provide comprehensive training for future clinical and translational science researchers.
REACH includes a broad, flexible, and integrated set of education programs providing needed clinical and translational research skills to a diverse population of potential trainees – from undergraduates to those in faculty positions. These programs help to foster a collaborative culture of investigation centered on the training of students and the mentoring of junior faculty.
The REACH educational structure is designed to encourage team science and provides a varied curriculum to serve the needs of junior and senior trainees, junior and senior faculty members, and community and research support personnel. Opportunities include both didactic coursework and mentored research, and include degree and certificate programs, pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training, and a range of seminars and workshops.
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