University at Buffalo (UB) 
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Clinical and Translational Science InstituteAdvancing research discoveries to improve health for all
Research Flow at UB
- The BERD delivers expert collaboration in clinical study development, providing study design support to investigators including assistance in formulating objectives and hypotheses, establishing the specified study population, selecting treatment groups, and determining sample size. In addition, BERD members provide statistical analysis plans based on modern methods which meet the standards of the most rigorous review processes.
- The Community Engagement Core will consult with research teams on integrating community into the design and implementation of research studies. This includes getting advice from community members on various aspects of your study through community engagement studios, development of community advisory boards and identification of community partners. Assistance with community based recruitment strategies includes the Buffalo Research Registry, a local registry of people interest in participating in research.
- Via the Informatics Core, investigators can model their studies using retrospective data in order to determine what the addition of any inclusion or exclusion criteria would likely do to the rate of recruitment given our historic population. They access this capability using the BMI Investigator.
- The goal of the TIN is to address roadblocks for NIH clinical trials and to accelerate translational research.
- The Workforce Development Core supports investigators, students, scholars and research support staff through the development and maintenance of key educational activities on clinical and translational science topics. This include the distinguished speakers seminar series featuring world-renowned speakers, ten core competency workshop series to train the CTSI workforce using state-of-the-art educational tools, and a variety of professional development workshops.
- The Team Science Core is available to work with investigators who are interested in building an effective team culture in their research groups and coach them on how to identify the right individuals for the team, learn how to lead instead of manage people, how to set team goals and track team’s performance, and how to develop team’s shared vision and effective communication culture.
- CSR is mandatory for most research studies at UB. Contact the CRO with any questions about which studies need to be processed through CSR.
- Clinical Research Office (CRO)
- Sponsored Projects Services (SPS)
- Industry sponsored studies are contracted through the CRO, while Federal awards are administered by SPS. Contact Research Facilitation for more information about contracting.
- Pharmacy, exam rooms, sample processing, etc. (Clinical Research Center)
- The RIC is an organizational partner within the Trial Innovation Network (TIN).
- The BERD provides data monitoring support to clinical studies including, when appropriate, assistance in the design of the data monitoring plan, construction of appropriate data reports based on collected variables so to assess the on-going risk-benefit ratio of study participants, assessment of trial accrual rates, and implementation of planned interim statistical analyses for use in making informed mid-study decisions.
- BERD members carefully select randomization algorithms for clinical trials which best assist in minimizing potential biases, ensuring comparability of treatment groups. Furthermore, BERD members contribute to the development of mechanisms to implement such procedures during the study which range from the simplistic to more complex web-based systems often used for multi-site trials.
- The BERD provides database design and statistical programming support in order to facilitate the timely production of reports and analysis results.
- BERD produced statistical analyses plans, whether defined according to a pre-specified analytic plan or those which are exploratory in nature, are implemented and used to generate comprehensive statistical reports for use in publications and/or presentations.
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Regulatory Assistance
- BERD provides additional analyses at the request of external regulatory and oversight groups and assists in the construction of all study reports.
- The Community Engagement Core will consult with research teams on methods to disseminate research findings for use in real world settings to advance health, healthcare and health policy.
- UB’s Division of University Communications promotes UB’s research and teaching to local and global media. Once a research grant is awarded and/or when research is published, faculty are advised to contact the designated University Media Contact for options to publicize their work.
