The Massachusetts General Hospital Translational and Clinical Research Centers (TCRC) supports the conduct of patient-oriented research projects and serves as a human research laboratory in which investigators can perform their funded projects. It is composed of two major units: the Clinical Research Center, a federally funded part of the Harvard Clinical Translation Science Center, directed largely to support NIH and foundation-sponsored research and the Translational Research Center, which is specially directed to work with investigators performing industry-sponsored human research.
The goal of the TCRC is to provide a research infrastructure for clinical investigators who conduct patient-oriented research. The TCRC can be used by investigators who are supported by the National Institutes of Health, other federal, state and local agencies, foundations, individual departments or by the private sector. The TCRC also supports pilot studies that may lead to future NIH or other support.
The clinical research support provided by the TCRC includes inpatient and outpatient facilities and support personnel, such as research nurses, nurse practitioners, research nutritionists, laboratory technicians, administrative personnel and others. For more detail about our services, please visit the pages below:
- Nursing
- Nutrition
- Laboratory
- Research Coordinator and Recruitment
- Preclinical/Clinical Program Development and Management
- Clinical Trial Management
- Regulatory and Quality Assurance
The investigations carried out by the TCRC can include studies of normal and abnormal human physiology and studies of the cause, prevention, progression, treatment and cure of diseases that afflict individuals from all backgrounds. Resources are provided to translate basic scientific discoveries into novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods that improve health care. Collaborations between basic and clinical scientists are encouraged. The TCRC provides a unique environment for mentored training of health professionals in clinical research.
The Clinical Research Center (CRC) is partly funded by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS), an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NCATS provides a comprehensive range of human, technological, and other resources to enable biomedical research advances at approximately 60 sites around the country. In order to promote the mission of the NIH, NCATS seeks scientific knowledge that will promote health and reduce illness and disability in our nation. Protocol applications to the CRC must adhere to NIH guidelines regarding inclusion of children, women and minority populations.
CRC resources are not intended to replace the usual mechanism of grant funding of investigators in aid of biomedical research, or to substitute for departmental facilities which serve individual research needs. The CRC is also not intended to fund clinical research studies fully. Funding for non-clinical aspects of the research studies should be provided by other sources.
In the process of achieving its primary objective, the CRC serves as a resource for teaching and training medical students, residents, fellows, and other health care professionals in the skills of clinical investigation. The CRC funds research fellowships to train potential future clinical investigators. The Translational Research Center (TRC) was developed as a way to partner more closely with the Boston area’s expansive pharmaceutical and biotechnology community and to accelerate the bench to bedside drug and device development pathway. This unit serves as a front door to industry sponsors looking to collaborate with our clinicians and access our expansive clinical population. It also internally supports our own investigators who are discovering new targets and therapeutics in their labs and provides a training environment for junior clinical investigators.
The highly trained clinical research staffing of the TRC makes it an ideal place to carry out all aspects of a clinical program, from target identification to clinical studies and everything in between.