The Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has been awarded $55 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate the development, evaluation and implementation of interventions to improve healthcare.
The seven-year award is Northwestern’s largest ongoing research grant and continues a tradition of funding from the National Institutes of Health since the institute’s founding in 2008.
“Clinical and translational research doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it takes dedicated researchers and the public working together to advance human health,” said Richard D’Aquila, MD, Howard Taylor Ricketts Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Senior Vice Dean for Clinical and Translational Research. “With generous support from NIH and Northwestern, we will continue to work with our outstanding coalition of community and health system partners to help build a better framework for innovating and implementing discoveries in a more inclusive way.”
The institute, co-led by principal investigators Sara Becker, PhD, the Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Clyde Yancy, MD, MS, chair of the Department of Medicine and Magerstadt Professor of Cardiology, remains a pillar of Northwestern’s research enterprise.
“The outstanding faculty and staff who are managing this NUCATS project are a testament to the transformative thinking of the Institute’s leadership,” said Eric G. Neilson, M.D., vice president for Medical Affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean. “This funding enables us to further our mission of improving human health by studying the mechanisms that drive the translation of discoveries into real-world treatments.”
The grant, awarded by NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, will support activities that foster an inclusive culture of excellence to better leverage existing talent while enabling efficient translation of discoveries to diverse populations. The institute is also committed to integrating implementation science approaches throughout the translational process to improve public health and meet the needs of all people.
“Implementation science can help us accelerate and promote the use of evidence-based practices in routine clinical care,” said Becker, who is also director of Northwestern’s Center for Communication and Implementation Science (CTSA). “Northwestern is a national leader in this field. The NUCATS Institute will serve as a model for CTSA centers that provide inclusive, innovative and implementable solutions to the evolving challenges that impede scalable public health progress.”
Yancy’s research in cardiology and health disparities addresses the optimal treatment of heart failure. One of his seminal contributions was revealing that the leading cause of heart failure in Black people is high blood pressure, rather than ischemic heart disease, the most common assumed cause in non-Black patients. His groundbreaking work has informed how to optimize treatment strategies for Black patients, including the first FDA-approved treatment for Black patients.
“Diversity in the biomedical workforce is about more than representation; it’s about excellence, diverse ideas, and unique strategies that will enhance our ability to deliver care to the entire population,” said Yancy, who also serves as associate dean for diversity and inclusion. “By intentionally addressing inequities, we can understand and overcome persistent systemic limitations that harm those who are underrepresented and underserved, undermining optimal health for everyone. We are committed to responsibly and courageously leading the path toward inclusive excellence and belonging.”
As one of more than 60 NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award-funded centers, NUCATS is now charged with increasing disseminable knowledge about how best to accelerate the impact of new ideas and interventions to improve health for all. NIH calls this new responsibility Conducting Clinical and Translational Science to distinguish it from its previous responsibility to provide resources for all clinical and translational research.
“A core tenet of translational science is understanding the common causes of inefficiencies and failures in translational research projects. Another area of focus, in collaboration with Northwestern’s Office of Innovation and New Ventures and other partners, will be on better helping academic innovators translate discoveries from the laboratory into clinical trials and toward commercialization,” said D’Aquila.
Northwestern University and its affiliates, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and its Stanley Mann Children’s Research Institute, Shirley Ryan Competence Lab, and Northwestern Medical School, comprise the NUCATS Institute. Clinicians and researchers at each affiliate are faculty members of Northwestern University, and the collaborating entities share a jointly operated, well-developed academic medical center campus where faculty and trainee education, care, and research activities foster a learning health system. Affiliates also have an extensive regional site/provider network that facilitates community outreach. The NUCATS Institute will continue to serve as the glue that coordinates translational research and advances translational science across the four center components.
The new CTSA activities are funded by NCATS grant UM1TR005121.