The NIH Almanac
Recent Photos from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
2012 Photos
The NCATS Pharmaceutical Collection, also known as the NIH Chemical Genomics Center Pharmaceutical Collection, is a comprehensive, publicly accessible collection of approved and investigational molecular entities for high-throughput screening that provides a valuable resource for both validating new models of disease and better understanding the molecular basis of disease pathology and intervention. NCATS provides access to its set of approved drugs and bioactives through the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program and as part of the compound collection for the Tox21 Initiative, a collaborative effort for toxicity screening among several government agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Toxicology Program, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Image by Darryl Leja, NHGRI)
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The process of testing and approving drugs is broken into four phases: drug discovery, preclinical testing, clinical trials and FDA review. Due to high attrition rates, mainly during preclinical translation, bringing one new drug to market comes at a high cost in terms of time and resources, and in the human cost to patients and their families. One drug typically involves the investigation of up to 10,000 compounds and takes about 14 years to be approved. NCATS aims to eliminate the bottlenecks in the translation process.
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A research team, supported in part by a Penn State University Clinical and Translational Science Institute pilot grant award and research funding from the National Cancer Institute, has developed a promising cancer-fighting strategy for "reactivating" genes that cause cancer tumors to shrink and die. The discovery may aid in the development of an innovative anti-cancer drug that effectively targets unhealthy, cancerous tissue without damaging healthy, non-cancerous tissue and vital organs. (National Cancer Institute Photo)
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Combining microfabrication techniques with modern tissue engineering, the lung-on-a-chip, designed by the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, offers a new in vitro approach to drug screening by mimicking the complicated mechanical and biochemical behaviors of a human lung. The lung-on-a-chip work was supported by NIH Common Fund and FDA. (The Human-on-a-Chip work at the Wyss Institute is funded by DARPA.)
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Several recipients of the 2012 mid-Atlantic regional Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer Award (left to right): Lili Portilla, M.P.A., acting director of the NCATS Office of Policy, Communications and Strategic Alliances; Elizabeth Ottinger, Ph.D., TRND project manager at NCATS; Alan Hubbs, Ph.D., technology transfer specialist at the National Cancer Institute; Forbes Porter, M.D., Ph.D., clinical director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and team lead for the project; and Steven Silber, M.D., vice president of established products, and Mark Kao, Ph.D., team lead in preclinical development drug safety sciences at J&J Pharmaceutical Research & Development, LLC.
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On September 14, 2012, NIH Director Francis S. Collins announced the appointment of Christopher P. Austin, M.D., as director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Austin succeeded former acting director of NCATS and current director of the National Institute of Mental Health Thomas R. Insel, M.D., on September 23, 2012. (Photo by Bill Branson)
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Patients with a rare type of the deadly lung disorder cystic fibrosis may be able to breathe easier thanks to a new drug that targets the defective protein causing the disease. Researchers from 13 universities and hospitals, including 10 CTSA institutions, partnered with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the drug manufacturer Vertex Pharmaceuticals to conduct clinical trials and obtain FDA approval for the drug Kalydeco as a new treatment.)
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A technician in an NCATS chemistry laboratory advancing a chemical probe through analog synthesis.
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