Update July 14: The Medical University of South Carolina has received a whopping $20 million.
Here's more on the substantial award from the received press release:
One of the most challenging aspects of today’s health care system is the time it takes for a promising new treatment to become accessible to those who need it. Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) joins 39 previously funded academic medical research institutions within a national network working together to reduce the time it takes to turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients, to engage communities in clinical research efforts, and to train the next generation of researchers. MUSC has been awarded the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) coveted Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA). The NIH will grant a total of 60 CTSAs through 2012 to round out this exclusive network.
“This award is the result of the collaborative efforts of clinicians, researchers and educators across the state of South Carolina, all with the shared vision of improving the health of the state’s citizens,” said Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., SCTR Director and CTSA Principal Investigator. “We are grateful to the National Institutes of Health for giving MUSC and our collaborators the opportunity to join the top research universities in the U.S. in the CTSA consortium.”
MUSC, and thus the South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR) that the CTSA supports, will receive $20 million in research funding during the next five years. These monies will fund a total of 11 programs on campus and through partnerships with the University of South Carolina, Health Sciences South Carolina, Clemson University, South Carolina State University, Claflin University, Greenwood Genetics Center, South Carolina Research Authority, and VA medical centers. The award provides these programs with more infrastructure support, better training for researchers, and perhaps best of all, greater access to top clinical trials and promising new treatments for patients who need them now.
“The CTSA is the vehicle that the NIH is using to shape the future of clinical research, and clinical and translational work are among the highest priorities at the Medical University. We see great opportunities with this new award to build upon our established successes,” said MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D. “Given the great disparities in health within the population of South Carolina, our focus, appropriately enough, will be on many of the conditions which contribute to these disparities. Our partnerships with colleagues across the state will amplify the impact of what we may have been able to accomplish on our own.”
First reporting:
The Medical University of South Carolina is proud to be receiving a generous grant from the National Institute of Health that will be put toward quickly moving research from the lab to patient's bedsides.
The exact details will be announced at an 11 a.m. press conference. We'll update once we have the details.
But in the meantime, here's the full announcement:
MUSC to announce large, national funding source from NIH
Award to impact South Carolina through unprecedented support for translating research faster into new treatments for patients, community engagement and better training ...
Background: MUSC has received a large grant that further catapults South Carolina into the national arena of translational research, or the process of making research move faster from the lab bench to the patient bedside, via an exclusive consortium involving the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. Cynthia Maxwell, a clinical trial patient, will also be on hand to discuss her experience and what this award means to people throughout the state.
