Duke Translational Medicine Institute

The Duke Translational Medicine Institute, established in October 2006 with a $52.7-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, will expedite the translation of new scientific discoveries into clinical practice, promote measurable improvements in community health, and make personalized medicine a reality.

The Duke Translational Medicine Institute will serve as the administrative umbrella for a diverse group of new and existing Duke entities:

• The Duke Clinical Research Institute, established in 1969, organizes and manages large-scale international clinical trials, disease registries and health outcome studies, from their conception to data analysis and publication of trial results.
• The Duke Clinical Research Unit will combine the current General Clinical Research Center, a federally funded inpatient unit specializing in novel clinical research, with a new facility to treat patients enrolled in first-time trials of new technology, including drugs, devices and vaccines.
• The Duke Translational Nursing Institute (DTNI) is a core component of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and addresses key scientific activities facilitating the transfer of knowledge into clinical application.
• The Duke Translational Research Institute, to be developed with the new NIH grant, will focus on streamlining the process of guiding new scientific discoveries through the early phases of development into technologies that can be applied to human health.
• The Duke Community Clinical Research Unit will combine current efforts with new initiatives to create a model system to improve the health status in Durham County while developing collaborations within North Carolina, other states and internationally to learn better how to understand the best models of preventing and treating illness on a community-wide basis.

Read more about plans for the DTMI in an October 2006 news release.