Human Translational Core

Summary The overarching objective of the Human Translational Core is to facilitate bench-to-bedside and reverse translational studies by providing members of the San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center (SDDRC) efficient access to human biospecimens of well-characterized cohorts of patients with digestive diseases. The Core facilitates clinical and translational research through pathological consultation and advanced biostatistical services. The Core is led by highly accomplished clinical and translational researchers from the UCSD Division of Gastroenterology, Dr. Rohit Loomba as Director and Dr. Brigid Boland as Co-Director. Drs. Loomba and Boland have established biorepositories in the Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) Center and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center, respectively, to benefit the SDDRC. Since inception of the SDDRC four years ago, the Human Translational Core has had great success in supporting Center members as evidenced by its usage by 66% of SDDRC members, distribution of ~9,000 human biospecimens and 1,500 clinical metadata sets, over 1,300 hours of clinical, biostatistical and pathology consultations, and its outstanding productivity and impact in 135 publications that acknowledge the Center grant based upon primary usage of services from this Core. Established strengths of this Core include: 1) Outstanding track record of the Core leadership in translational research related to inflammation in gastrointestinal and liver diseases, and their experience in detailed phenotyping of patients with digestive diseases (NAFLD and chronic liver disease for Dr. Loomba, IBD for Dr. Boland); 2) Access to well-characterized and highly diverse cohorts of patients with specific digestive diseases; 3) Access to a biorepository of human biospecimens including needle biopsy liver tissue and endoscopic biopsy gastrointestinal tissues, plasma, serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells and stool; 4) Access to archived clinical pathology samples from the UCSD Medical Center; 5) Leverage of state-of-the-art data management resources established at the UCSD Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI); 6) Outstanding expertise in GI pathology and advanced biostatistics; and 7) Excellent training opportunities for Center members and their staff. The Core has the following specific service aims: Aim 1. To collect, process, annotate and distribute human biospecimens coupled with patient metadata to Center investigators; Aim 2. To provide archived clinical pathology samples from the UCSD Medical Center to SDDRC investigators; Aim 3. To offer clinical, biostatistical and pathological consultation services, as well as training opportunities. Thus, the Human Translational Core will continue to make important contributions to the research of SDDRC investigators by providing unique and cost-effective services involving human tissues, clinical metadata and translational study approaches that enhance the scope and innovation of their research and its relevance to human diseases of the digestive tract.