The ultimate goals of the University of Chicago CTSA program are to train scientists and health care providers at the University, our partner institutions, and our Community to determine the molecular underpinnings of disease or disease predisposition in any individual patient; to develop, test, implement, and make readily available to residents in our Community personalized therapies directed toward those individual underpinnings; and to do this in a way that is rigorous, valid, efficient, ethical, and respectful of our Community's needs and values. In a robust alliance with Argonne National Laboratory, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and two large healthcare organizations, we will undertake three bold new steps that will transform clinical and translational research at our institutions and in our Community: 1) Creation of an Institute for Translational Medicine, a new University-wide structure to collect, integrate, and disseminate the intellectual, organizational, and resource infrastructure needed to promote and support multidisciplinary translational research collaborations; 2) Synergistic research interaction with a new UC Urban Health Initiative which, through partnership with Community stakeholders, aims to improve Community health care access and quality, to build health literacy and trust throughout the Community, to enhance a translational research program informed by and responsive to the needs of the Community, and so to reduce health disparities; and 3) Establishment of a new academic Committee on Clinical and Translational Science and of multiple novel training programs to encourage and develop careers in clinical and translational research, intended for high school students through university faculty and across the entire translational research spectrum. Our consortium of dedicated CTSA investigators will employ a systems medicine approach to leverage their particular expertise in social science, genetic medicine, and integrative therapeutics. Together, this team and these transforming innovations will allow the University of Chicago CTSA to prepare the next generation of clinical and translational researchers to realize our vision of widely available, effective, and personalized therapies that find everyday application in Community practice and thereby reduce health disparities in diverse adult and pediatric populations.
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