CTR Web site increases access to research resources

Jennifer Larsen, M.D.

A new Web site will serve as a one-stop shop for UNMC investigators who conduct clinical and/or translational research.

The Web site — clinicalresearch.unmc.edu — also is the Internet home for the UNMC Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR).

The site brings together UNMC’s research resources, not only patient oriented research resources, but translational core facilities. It also describes educational programs and links to commonly used Web sites, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) site and CITI training.

“The site is one way to bring basic and clinical investigators together to form new translational research teams, which is necessary given the push at the national and campus level to increase such investigation,” said Brian Shotwell, CCTR administrator.

The site also includes information about the medical center’s partners in the Great Plains Health Research Consortium (GPHRC), which UNMC initiated and directs. UNMC’s GPHRC partners are:

• Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha;
  
• USDA Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, N.D.;
  
• Northern Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center, Rapid City, S.D.;
  
• South Dakota State University, Brookings, S.D.;
  
• University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha;
  
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln; and
  
• University of South Dakota, Vermillion and Sioux Falls, S.D.

The term “translational research” refers to investigation and findings that are taken from laboratories and put to use in clinics and then into the community at large.

UNMC has placed greater emphasis on translational research in recent years, as has the NIH, which provides infrastructure grants to support translational research such as the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA).

Forming translational research teams is important to tackle many complex health issues, which increasingly require different types of expertise.

“We hope that the Center for Clinical and Translational Research and its new Web site will foster more translational research teams that can speed discoveries from the benchtop and laboratory into clinical studies and practice,” said Jennifer Larsen, M.D., director of the CCTR.