The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $225,750 grant to Wayne State University to support a strategic planning process for a clinical translational science award (CTSA). Clinical and translational research is critical to improving health and finding cures and treatments for hundreds of diseases and conditions such as Diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, AIDS, cardiovascular disease and inherited disorders.

“As a research institution, Wayne State seeks to advance knowledge for the benefit of society,” said Wayne State University President Irvin D. Reid. “And now more than ever, research is an interdisciplinary activity that allies universities with the private sector. I believe the university has achieved an important milestone in our strategic planning process by being awarded a Planning Grant for the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award. This NIH grant opportunity provides a unique and imperative opportunity to reinvent our research capabilities.”

Wayne State University is joining a group of prestigious universities and research institutes, known as Academic Health Centers (AHC), as part of a national consortium designed to transform how clinical and translational research is conducted, ultimately enabling researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients. When fully implemented in 2012, about 60 institutions will be linked together to energize the discipline of clinical and translational science.

Specifically, this program, which the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is leading on behalf of the NIH, encourages the development of novel methods and approaches to clinical and translational research, enhances informatics and technology resources, and improves training and mentoring to ensure that new investigators can navigate the increasingly complex research system.

Robert M. Mentzer, School of Medicine dean and senior advisor to the president for medical affairs, said Wayne State University’s medical school is well positioned to fulfill the NIH’s mandate that CTSA institutions engage the broad community that they serve. “Our reach to the community will be facilitated by our collaborators who are representative of major medical institutions in Detroit and southeast Michigan. The depth of our collaborators was a great strength to our proposal, as was the expertise and ongoing work of our faculty, and the clear institutional commitment of President Irvin D. Reid and Wayne State University."

With more than 1,000 students, the Wayne State University School of Medicine is the nation\'s third largest medical school. Together with its clinical partners, the Wayne State University Physician Group, the Detroit Medical Center and other area health-care providers, the school is a leader in medical research and patient care with emphases on cancer; maternal-child health; neurosciences; and population studies and urban health.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.