Clinical and Translational Science Award Announcement

Delivered August 13, 2015 This content is archived.

Good morning!

We are so pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate this very exciting announcement from the National Institutes of Health—a 4-year, $16 million Clinical and Translational Science Award.

This prestigious award will establish the UB Clinical and Translational Research Center as the hub of the Buffalo Translational Consortium. This is a partnership of academic, research, health care, and community-based institutions focused on:

  • Advancing critical medical breakthroughs
  • And translating them directly into:
    • expanded clinical training opportunities for students;
    • and better health care for patients in Western New York, across our nation, and around the world.

UB is proud to serve as the lead institution of the consortium, which will be based here in the Clinical and Translational Research Center. This UB-led CTSA award—the first awarded to a SUNY institution—is a testament to the exceptional research and clinical expertise represented by:

  • our university’s five health science schools
  • and our partners on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

This award recognizes—and builds on—the substantial research strength and clinical collaborations we have developed together. And with the addition of the Buffalo Translational Consortium to our life sciences community, we are taking another critical step forward in fully realizing our shared vision for our region.

That vision is about building a world-class hub for excellence in patient care, medical education, clinical research, and innovation. And it is about building stronger, healthier communities—regionally, nationally, and globally.

This CTSA award gives us the power to do just that:

  • Not just by advancing the development of new drugs, new diagnostic tools, and medical devices,
  • But by speeding their delivery from bench to bedside—directly to the patients who need them.

The Buffalo Translational Consortium exemplifies the collaborative model that is so important to advancing basic and clinical research in the 21st century:

  • a community of doctors, researchers, health care providers, and community partners coming together to tackle critical health care challenges.

In that spirit of collaboration, I want to thank and acknowledge all of our partners in this effort. In particular, I want to acknowledge:

  • Our health care, clinical research, and community partners across the region—including our clinical partners on this grant:
    • Roswell Park Cancer Institute
    • and the Great Lakes Health System.
  • And members of the congressional delegation, including Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, and Congressman Brian Higgins, who has joined us today.

We are deeply appreciative of their leadership and advocacy to ensure that UB and our partners have the tools we need:

  • to increase our capacity for high-impact clinical research—
  • and to bring the benefits of that research directly to our communities.

Here on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, we are seeing our region transform before our eyes with the resurgence of our great city. This CTSA award is another big step in that transformation.

As part of the national CTSA network, Buffalo will now become even more widely known—and have even greater impact—as a national hub for bench-to-bedside clinical research and patient care. Major clinical trials will be conducted here. Research breakthroughs that change the face of modern medicine will take place here. And our communities will be stronger and healthier as a result.

We are honored to be joined today by a member of our Congressional delegation who has a keen sense of exactly what this award means for our broader communities regionally, statewide, and nationally.

I am delighted to welcome U.S. Representative Brian Higgins.