About
The Institute for the Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) supports research at the interface of basic and clinical research, with a particular focus on the development of new and safer therapeutic entities. ITMAT includes its own faculty and basic research space, the former General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) which has been integrated with that of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to form the Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) and an expanding repertoire of cores, programs, and centers designed to support research endeavors between proof of concept in cellular and animal model systems across the translational divide into proof of concept and dose selection in humans.ITMAT laboratories are housed within the Biomedical Research Building and will expand further with the opening of the Anne and Jerome Fisher Translational Research Building in 2010. Educational programs relating to translational research, including the Masters in Translational Research, are also housed within ITMAT. The objectives of ITMAT are (i) to provide an intellectual home and core critical mass for those who pursue translational research; (ii) to expand the number of faculty pursuing translational research at Penn through direct recruitment and enhancement of recruitment packages of any academic entity; (iii) to expand this critical mass by education of existing faculty in translational research and (iv) to develop as a single point of contact for Penn investigators seeking information and support to pursue translational research and for outside agencies wishing to engage with Penn in this area.
ITMAT has expanded to include investigators focused on clinical and translational research in all schools at Penn, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Wistar Institute, and the University of Sciences in Philadelphia. These partner institutions competed successfully for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) funded under the NIH Roadmap, designating ITMAT as the academic home for the program. The two major focus areas of this CTSA are (i) Translational Therapeutics and (ii) Bridging the Pediatric - Adult divide in our understanding of physiology and disease. Since its inception in January 2005, ITMAT has expanded to include more than 500 investigators. This campus-wide membership represents a resource for those seeking internal or external collaborations and for those needing a searchable resource for inquiries as to job placement in clinical and translational research.