The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) was established in 2012 and is located in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

. NCATS is one of 27 institutes and centers of the US

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(NIH), an agency of the

US Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

. The mission of NCATS is to transform scientific discoveries into new treatments and cures for disease that can be delivered faster to patients. The budget provided to NCATS for fiscal year 2018 is $557,373,000.

History

NCATS was created in December 2011 by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012. The center was created from a number of existing NIH programs: *

Clinical and Translational Science Award Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is a type of U.S. federal grant administered by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA program began in October 2006 under the au ...

program *

Components of the Molecular Libraries Program Circuit Component may refer to: •Are devices that perform functions when they are connected in a circuit. In engineering, science, and technology Generic systems *System components, an entity with discrete structure, such as an assemb ...

Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

* RAID renamed

Bridging Interventional Development Gaps Bridging may refer to: Construction * Building of bridges across a gap * Cross bracing used between joists to stabilize them Electronics and computing * In electronics, using a low source impedance to drive a large load impedance for maximum vo ...

Office of Rare Diseases Research The Office of Rare Diseases Research is a division of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) that oversees the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network and Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center. History The Offic ...

* NIH–FDA Regulatory Science Initiative *

Cures Acceleration Network A cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease. Cure, or similar, may also refer to: Places * Cure (river), a river in France * Cures, Sabinum, an ancient Italian town * Cures, Sarthe, a commune in western France People * Curate or ...

(CAN)

Divisions

NCATS is organized into a number of divisions: * Division of Clinical Innovation * Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation * Office of Administrative Management * Office of Grants Management and Scientific Review *

: Oversees the

Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network The Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) is an initiative of the Office of Rare Diseases Research (ORDR). RDCRN is funded by the ORDR, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and collaborating institute centers. The RDCR ...

and

Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) was established in 2012 and is located in Bethesda, Maryland. NCATS is one of 27 institutes and centers of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US Departmen ...

(GARD) * Office of Strategic Alliances: Works with businesses in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry to speed the development of new drugs

Programs and initiatives

Overview

The stated goal of NCATS is to promote research in both existing and new areas of medicine and science, in order to promote public health and to overcome high failure rates in clinical trials. To accomplish this, NCATS supports 31 programs and initiatives that relate to translational research and improving the speed of therapeutic development. The 31 programs and initiatives involve a range of STEM-related fields including biology, biochemistry, chemistry, bioengineering, virology, genetics, and data science. Within the realm of translational science, issues that NCATS is particularly focused on addressing using its programs, initiatives, and partnerships include increasing the success and de-risking the costs associated with therapeutic development, incentivizing more collaborative work, and addressing data transparency issues.

COVID response

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NCATS launched an open data initiative to promote collaborative sharing of COVID-related drug data. An additional data sharing partnership with several other government institutes resulted in a study detailing the COVID-related risks for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

References