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Overview
The Tufts Medical Center Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC), formerly known as the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC), has been in continuous operation since 1961. The Tufts CTRC serves as a core institutional resource for the conduct of investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed, innovative clinical research within Tufts Medical Center and under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA)-supported Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). It provides the necessary infrastructure for investigators to conduct a wide range of state-of-the-art clinical studies in neonatal, pediatric, and adult research participants in the inpatient and outpatient settings. The CTRC offers an array of resources to facilitate clinical research for studying the causes and progression of human disease and for translation of biomedical research to prevent, treat, or cure disease. The CTRC is staffed by a full complement of specialized nurses and research assistants, study coordinators, a dietitian, and laboratory technicians. Investigators at all Tufts CTSI affiliated partners have access to CTRC services. We support and encourage government funded (e.g. NIH), industry-sponsored studies as well as other non-profit and funded studies.
The CTRC provides support for every aspect of a clinical study, including regulatory and coordinating services, data collection (e.g. administration of questionnaires), routine and specialized nursing (anthropometry, phlebotomy and special procedures), sample collection, processing, short-term and long-term storage (-20oC or -80oC), and shipment. Services provided within the CTRC are carefully coordinated with services provided by other institutional cores (e.g. Research Design Center (RDC), Tufts CTSI Core Laboratory, Tufts Medical Center Clinical Laboratory, Tufts Medical Center Investigational Drug Services). Through access to additional resources within Tufts CTSI, investigators using the Tufts CTRC are further guided and supported in relation to study design and protocol development; grant writing and submission; regulatory approval; data management and data analyses.
Anastassios G. Pittas, MD, MS, is the Tufts CTRC Program Director and Tamsin A. Knox, MD, MPH, is the Associate Program Director. Melahat Samali, MBA, is the CTRC Clinical Trial Manager with a staff of specialized research nurses and a medical assistant, research study coordinator, and laboratory technicians.
Investigators who are preparing an application to request external or internal funding (e.g. NIH) for a study that will be conducted, at least in part, at the CTRC need to contact the CTRC Manager as early as possible so we can assist by creating customized study-specific documents for the resources/environment and budget sections of the application.
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