$47.5 million grant allows Rutgers to turn lab discoveries into practical healthcare
Rutgers will use the grant to create interventions ranging from diagnostics to medical procedures and behavioral health interventions.
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Leaders from Rutgers University and the broader New Jersey community convened last week to celebrate a $47.5 million federal grant for the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science, which will be used to transform laboratory discoveries into more practical health solutions and treatments.
The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), the state's only CTSA, is funded through the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS). The award promotes "translational" science, which uses discoveries to create interventions ranging from diagnostics and therapeutics to medical procedures and behavioral health interventions.
NJ ACTS, formed with an initial $29 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in 2019, includes scientists, healthcare providers, patient advocacy organizations and community members.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
With the latest round of funding over the next seven years, NJ ACTS will focus on putting opioid overdose prevention research into practice, preventing maternal mortality and studying childhood asthma and environmental toxins.
According to Rutgers, the grant also advances translational science by launching and promoting clinical trials – specifically, highly complex, non-oncology trials such as gene therapy.
The grant will continue to build networks for community-engaged research and bolster diverse workforce development, such as training in dissemination and implementation science, the university said.
Rutgers said the effort enables research teams, including scientists, patient advocacy organizations and community members, to tackle system-wide scientific and operational problems in clinical and translational research.
THE LARGER TREND
Together, NJ ACTS institutions reach nearly 7.5 million of the state's 9 million residents.
"It is inspiring to think about how we were able, as a community, to create alliances among academic institutions and clinical, state and community partners, to further clinical and translational research and training that did not exist in the state prior to our award in 2019," said, Reynold Panettieri, vice chancellor for translational medicine and science and director of the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science. "In addition, our partnership with RWJBarnabas Health gave us a great opportunity to expand our clinical research, connecting the basic science research done by our 200-plus investigators to patient care statewide."
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
