Clinical and Translational Science Core

PROJECT SUMMARY (CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE CORE) The WHO’s “End TB Strategy” will require novel TB vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics, along with advances in clinical research methods and modeling, a new cadre of clinical researchers, strengthened domestic and international collaborations, and access to biospecimens. The University of Washington (UW) excels in conducting research in clinical epidemiology, clinical trials, implementation science, and disease modeling, while also developing strong global health programs and partnerships in TB-endemic countries. The Clinical and Translational Science Core (“CTSC”) will educate and train new and early-stage investigators, including people working in TB-endemic countries, and individuals from underrepresented minority groups, in critical areas of clinical TB research. The CTSC will coordinate with the other SEA-TRAC Cores to leverage the multi-disciplinary expertise available and engage non-TB investigators who may bring novel perspectives and advanced methods to TB research. The CTSC will leverage existing biorepositories to catalyze TB research and generate preliminary data using the vast UW research network that includes field sites in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. The CTSC will be to provide expertise for a broad array of clinical research topics, provide shared research support for resources, services and training, and to strengthen TB clinical research through domestic and international collaborations through three specific aims: (1) to strengthen clinical and translational TB research through training and consultation in clinical science methodology and support of local collaborations; (2) to strengthen TB clinical research by developing and expanding partnerships with national and international collaborators conducting clinical and translational research in TB; and (3) Aim 3. To foster and catalyze collaborations with investigators with established cohorts, robust clinical databases, and biospecimens for advancing basic, translation, and clinical TB research. The CTSC will also maintain an intensive one-week advanced TB research summer course. Overall, the CTSC will foster collaborations between SEA-TRAC investigators and authorizing investigators, which will lead to more productive and efficient research, an increase in generated pilot study data, and more collaborative TB grant submissions over a 5-year period.