College of Pharmacy a Central Player in Re-engineered NIH Research Funding Enterprise

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ast fall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that the University of Michigan will receive a $55 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). The five-year grant, the third largest NIH award in the University’s history, builds on previous NIH investments to expand innovative programs and services in clinical and translational research infrastructure and education. The grant consists of approximately $6 million in new support, with $49 million in NIH funds previously committed to clinical research at U-M. What makes the $55 million grant unique is that it was awarded to a multidisciplinary coalition including the Colleges of Pharmacy and Engineering; the Schools of Medicine, Business, Dentistry, Nursing, and Public Health; the Division of Kinesiology; the Life Sciences Institute; and the Institute for Social Research.

"What we are seeing here is the NIH’s intent to re-engineer the entire clinical and translational research enterprise," explains Associate Dean and Professor of Pharmacy Lynda S. Welage, BSPharm’81, PharmD, the College’s lead representative. "Rather than fund individual clinical research centers, the NIH will fund multidisciplinary research institutes. By issuing grants to clusters of collaborators, NIH is trying to encourage cross-disciplinary partnerships in order to accelerate the advancement of science from bench to bedside to patients in the community." Eleven other universities besides Michigan were awarded CTSA in 2007. They join 12 institutions added to the consortium in 2006. By 2012, NIH plans to have 60 institutions linked together. The goal is to energize collaborations on a local and regional level, and then expand the discipline of clinical and translational science on a national scale.

The U-M’s Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR), launched in November 2007, is the administrative umbrella for this grant. Led by Dan Clauw, MD, professor of internal medicine, MICHR is brokering partnerships among multiple University units, and distributing CTSA funds via small, nimble funding request review systems. MICHR also is leveraging its size and scope to attract industry partners, and to extend its outreach to the community for both research and educational ends.

In addition to NIH funds administered through MICHR, 24 different departments, colleges or units at the U-M -- including the College of Pharmacy -- provided funds to encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary research that improves human health. These funds have effectively doubled the size of the CTSA.

"Everybody is a player under this system," Welage notes. "Our College was well positioned to function within a grant of this type because our research model is premised on collaborative effort and interdisciplinary research teams. CTSA will accelerate the development of our collaborations inside and outside the University."

College personnel are already serving in strategic leadership positions. In addition to Welage, who is the faculty co-director of the education and mentoring program within MICHR, Vicki Ellingrod PharmD, associate professor of pharmacy in the Department of Clinical Sciences is on the scientific review committee; Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Heather Carlson, PhD, serves on the internal advisory board; and alumnus Don Therasse, PharmD’78, MD, a member of the College’s Dean’s Advisory Committee and vice president, global medical affairs at Eli Lilly Research Labs, has agreed to serve on the external advisory board.

College-affiliated researchers also were early recipients of MICHR first round, pilot-grant funding. They included Ellingrod, Research Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Hollis Showalter, PhD, and Associate Professor Kathleen Stringer, PharmD’85. "A CTSA is the superhighway of the NIH roadmap: the ultimate resource an institution needs to really deliver cures and treatments to our patients," states Clauw. "The University has been building infrastructure for nearly five years. As a result we are ready to use the CTSA to help people do the best research, as well as excite and attract people who weren’t previously thinking about a career in clinical or translational research."