University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics

Children's Hospital Colorado is part of the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI), which recently received a $48.4 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This collaboration aims to accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries into clinical treatments. The grant -- one of the largest of the NIH awards -- is a renewal to an earlier grant awarded in 2008, which led to the creation the CCTSI.

"We are extremely pleased that the NIH has selected the CCTSI to receive this grant," said Jim Shmerling, Chief Executive Officer. "For Children’s Hospital Colorado and our patients this means new discoveries and revolutionary treatments in complex pediatric conditions. My congratulations to the entire research team.”

The CCTSI is a collaborative enterprise between the University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Boulder, Colorado State University and six major hospitals -- Children’s Colorado, University of Colorado Hospital, Denver Health, National Jewish Health, Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente of Colorado. CCTSI also includes health care organizations and local communities, both rural and inner city. 

At Children’s Colorado, the grant will continue funding for Children’s Colorado’s Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), which includes a 6 inpatient beds and an 11-room outpatient research clinic. Among other discoveries, the revolutionary treatment for a specific form of Cystic Fibrosis, Kalydeco, was initially tested within Children’s Colorado’s CTRC. 

The CTRC includes Children’s Colorado’s Core lab, which serves the UCD Campus, researchers throughout the United States and the world, as well as industry. It also serves as a reference laboratory for Children’s Colorado, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Quest Diagnostic. 

The grant will also support Children’s Colorado’s biostaticians and the hospital’s Child and Maternal Health research. 

“This grant award is the result of a lot of hard work by many people.  It has been a true team effort,” said Ronald J. Sokol, MD, (pictured above) chief of the Digestive Health Institute at Children’s Colorado, Vice Chair of Pediatrics and principal investigator and CCTSI director.  

He added, “We appreciate the NIH’s and Children’s Colorado’s continued support and commitment to our Institute. This award allows us to be a continuous voice in the broader discussion of improving health while reducing costs.

Some of the goals of the CCTSI are to: 

• Expand the statewide academic home for clinical and translational research.
• Implement new clinical research management strategies to improve quality, safety, efficiency, cost-effectiveness and innovative team science as well as introduce new software systems and workflows.
• Centralize the delivery of resources, services and technologies.
• Incorporate key concepts of community engagement into the full spectrum of translational research.
• Increase the translational research workforce capacity through a broad curriculum of education, training and career development opportunities.

“This is a program that will continue to develop groundbreaking advances in medicine, as findings at the laboratory bench are effectively applied to treatment of patients. The CCTSI is also a model for cooperation amongst the leading healthcare institutions in the region,” said Frederick J. Suchy, M.D. Dr. Suchy is the Chief Research Officer, Director of Children's Hospital Colorado Research Institute, Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Child Health Research for the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Eventually, through innovative research and dissemination, CCTSI should help improve the health care of all of Colorado's more than 4 million residents and the 1,300 physician practices and 300 hospitals that serve them.