$13 million grant establishes center that will focus on developing clinical applications

Medical school gets translational research center

he ability to fast-track promising research from scientific laboratories to patients’ bedsides is taking a giant leap forward at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, thanks to a $13 million grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. The grant will establish the Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at the Miller School of Medicine, focusing on breakthrough treatments for diabetes, cancer, arthritis, spinal cord injury, and paralysis, along with other advances in biomedical technologies.

“This is an extraordinarily generous gift to support something of great importance,” says Luis Glaser, executive vice president and provost. “The National Institutes of Health have called on academic medical centers to concentrate more on translational activities, and this gift will help put us at the forefront of that mission.”

The research projects will originate within five centers of excellence at the Miller School of Medicine and the College of Engineering: the Diabetes Research Institute, UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Many scientists who conduct promising research in labs don’t have the expertise or facilities to move their findings on to clinical trials and then into commercial development. In the new center, those scientists will have access to resources and investigators who can help them design human trials to test their discoveries and turn them into patented products. Cancer vaccines, certain diagnostic tests, and even cell-based therapies for diabetes and other disorders are examples of products that could make their way to patients faster.

“The School of Medicine has a well-known expertise in the targeted areas of research, so it is only fitting that we concentrate our translational research on what we already do best,” says John G. Clarkson, senior vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Miller School of Medicine. “This incredible gift from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation will allow us to create a center that will serve as an accelerator for new ideas, while translating basic research into patented products that will improve health outcomes worldwide.”

The foundation has a strong connection to Miami, as its benefactor, Wallace H. Coulter, was a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur who made Miami his home for many years. He founded the Coulter Corporation (now Beckman-Coulter) and turned it into a leading worldwide medical diagnostic company.

“The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation is delighted to provide this grant to the University of Miami to establish the Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research. Over the years, the University has been an important research partner to Coulter Corporation,” says Wayne Barlin, vice president and general counsel of the foundation. “The foundation recognizes and applauds the goal of this new center to promote and accelerate the introduction of new technologies into patient care, and along with all of South Florida we look forward to promising results.”

The center will be under the direction of Norma Kenyon. Kenyon holds the Martin Kleiman Chair in Diabetes Research, is a professor of surgery, medicine, microbiology and immunology, and is director of preclinical islet transplantation and codirector of the Cell Transplant Center at the Miller School of Medicine’s Diabetes Research Institute.

“Research projects brought into the center will have to meet specific criteria with regards to whether or not the finished product addresses an unmet clinical need and has commercial potential,” Kenyon says. “The center will build on the creativity of University of Miami investigators and provides us with a unique opportunity to enhance academic-industry interactions and partnerships.”

Camillo Ricordi, Stacy Joy Goodman Professor of Surgery and Medicine, senior associate dean for research at the Miller School of Medicine, and scientific director of the Diabetes Research Institute, says the new center of excellence at UM “will bring our translational research capabilities to the next level, bridging across existing departments and centers, promoting collaboration and synergy, and catalyzing the development of a shared infrastructure and competencies to move promising new discoveries forward.”