The Center for Biomedical Informatics' (CBI) programs are designed to facilitate the movement of promising wet bench research and theoretical modeling into clinical testing, and more rapidly translating research discoveries into clinical practice. These interventions will lead to patient oriented outcomes research that will generate new basic science research questions that can be taken back to the bench.

The Mount Sinai Medical Center (MSMC) has committed itself to building a substantial Biomedical Informatics infrastructure. The CBI will direct the design and implementation of this campus-wide research resource. The MSICTS will leverage MSMC's investments in Biomedical Informatics resources to support clinical and translational research.

MSMC, and its affiliated health organizations and community resources, will greatly benefit from the provision of interoperable, institution wide accessibility of MSICTS data sets for IRB approved studies. Benefits will be realized both by the MSICTS and by the CTSA Informatics Consortium who will be able to share in the tools and resources created by the CBI under the very backing of the MSICTS.

Our data collection and storage methods will emphasize data interoperability and the development of an expert rules engine to facilitate smart access to the interoperable model based research data repository. The interoperable data repository will be augmented by the development of best-of-breed analytics that will create and share clinically useful mathematical and statistical models across the MSICTS.

The Centers for Community and Academic Research Partnerships (CCARP) was founded to greatly improve health care and the understanding of health problems in minority and underserved communities by building strong relationships of mutual trust and respect between community representatives and Mount Sinai faculty. The partnerships formed by CCARP will focus on the common interests in exploring community and population health problems scientifically to devise and deliver the optimal solutions for improving the health of individual patients and the community.

CCARP will train and mentor researchers to conduct research with local communities more effectively, and it will foster partnerships with a broad and diverse group of community members, who will serve as intellectual partners in the research and be available to participate in research studies. These partnerships will spark true innovation that distinguishes the work of Mount Sinai as a great academic institution and open avenues for ongoing funding in an increasingly challenging federal environment.

The Translational Discoveries program includes:

• The Clinical Research Center (CRC)
• Office of Clinical Research (OCR)
• The Design, Biostatistics, and Bioethics Program
• The Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine (IPM)

The Clinical Research Center (CRC)
The CRC will provide a flexible, responsive, safe and practical environment to advance clinical and translational research and support education. It will build upon the current successes of the General Clinical Research Center, expand and innovate to meet imminent and future needs of the research and general community, including access to Participant and Clinical Interactions Resources for emerging programs, and address current deficits with novel and collaborative programs and restructuring.

Office of Clinical Research (OCR)
The OCR will provide seamless translation from basic science to clinical inquiry by providing access, outreach and education to the full breadth of the community of scientists within MSMC and its affiliates. The MSICTS will provide support for enhancements of OCR, which will consolidate the expertise of clinical trial staff throughout the medical center and offer a variety of operational support to all investigators.

Developed in response to the needs of Mount Sinai's ever-growing research community, these services are designed to facilitate the conduct of clinical research, foster the development of translational research and provide administrative and regulatory support to clients.

The Design, Biostatistics, and Bioethics Program
Clinical and translational research demands innovation in linking biomedical discoveries to clinical and community applications, bridging disciplines and combining research tools that have not previously been integrated - not just at Mount Sinai but throughout the biomedical sciences. The pace and diversity of scientific discoveries and the opportunities for application to patient care and prevention are unprecedented, rendering off-the-shelf approaches to study design, biostatistics, and bioethics insufficient. The conventional goals of ensuring valid, statistically reliable and efficient designs, informative data analysis, proper interpretation of quantitative results, and maintenance of the highest ethical standards in the conduct of research remain valid, but the means of attaining those goals must evolve as rapidly and dramatically as the underlying biomedical discoveries.

The program in Study Design, Biostatistics and Bioethics has two overarching goals:

1) to organize, consolidate and integrate resources to ensure that they are fully accessible to investigators, matched to the needs of the clinical and translational investigators, and of the highest technical quality;
2) to foster innovation in study design, biostatistics and bioethics and to create mechanisms to stimulate and reward these achievements.

The Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine (IPM)
With the continued advances in genome sciences, information technology, molecular diagnostics and other biotechnologies, it is anticipated that healthcare in the future will shift towards a more "personalized" paradigm of medicine. Achieving this vision requires that our understanding of the genetic and biomolecular mechanisms of healthy and diseased states continues to broaden and improve.

In addition, major efforts in education and awareness amongst the general public, patients, and providers about how 'personalized medicine' paradigms will change the approach to and delivery of personalized healthcare need to be developed and communicated effectively, with input from community and provider representatives.

Finally, the increased use of high-throughput methodologies for molecular analysis (e.g., genomic and proteomic technologies) in translational research is focusing new attention on biorepositories with collections of human biospecimens that are annotated with pre-analytical parameters, molecular, demographic, and clinical information.

The Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine (IPM) is developing an interdisciplinary institute to advance personalized health and healthcare. IPM will provide infrastructure support and an academic home for MSICTS in translational genomics research, biospecimen-dependent and biomedical informatics research, and provider and community education in personalized medicine.

The program in Experimental Therapeutics and Technology includes:

• The Experimental Therapeutics Institute (ETI)
• Pilot and Collaborative Translational and Clinical Studies
• Shared Research Facilities (SRF)
• The Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute (TMII)

The Experimental Therapeutics Institute (ETI)
The Experimental Therapeutics Institute (ETI) is one of five new Integrative Technology Institutes, which brings together the intellectual and technical expertise of several basic science departments: Pharmacology & Systems Therapeutics; Gene & Cell Medicine; Structural & Chemical Biology; and Genetics & Genomic Sciences.

As a major research resource of the MSICTS, ETI will be the institutional hub for developing and implementing a range of emerging technologies, from small molecule pre-lead chemical compounds to biotherapeutic agents to computational approaches that can be used to build interdisciplinary clinical and translational research programs.

ETI will work with the Bronfman Personalized Medicine Institute, the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, the Center for Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics, and the Center Biomedical Informatics to foster new discoveries, and with the Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) and the Office of Industrial Liaison to promote development of new discoveries. In doing so, we can advance the most promising novel therapeutic compounds and diagnostics, devices and strategies into general clinical practice and into community settings.

Pilot & Collaborative Translational & Clinical Studies
The goal of the Pilot & Collaborative Translational & Clinical Studies Program is to facilitate and sustain collaborative, cross-functional research projects throughout Mount Sinai and with its professional research and community partners. Investigators with different research perspectives from basic, clinical and community health will be given the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines in an effort to tackle critical problems relating to human disease and health care delivery.

The program will emphasize, but not be restricted to, those health problem areas in which Mount Sinai has exceptional scientific strength. We will also employ this funding mechanism to solicit and support a range of new ideas, in as yet untapped and unrealized areas of faculty interest and expertise.

Shared Research Facilities (SRF)
MSICTS' role in the SRFs will enhance the research environment for the basic, clinical and translational sciences by providing all Mount Sinai investigators access to cutting-edge technologies, and by increasing training for faculty and fellows in their use. The incorporation of these emerging technologies into the research activities of Mount Sinai investigators will be facilitated by better publicity regarding their availability, improved guidance in identifying the most appropriate technology, and greater access to expertise to advise investigators regarding their use.

As new technologies evolve, these research capabilities will be updated to provide the latest technologies by providing seed monies for the development of new Shared Research Facilities.

The Translational & Molecular Imaging Institute (TMII)
Mount Sinai recognizes that ambitious programs in clinical and translational research require interdisciplinary application of imaging approaches at the anatomic, functional and molecular levels. Mount Sinai is already an internationally recognized leader in biomedical imaging, and its imaging resources are actively contributing to such research programs at the School of Medicine and outside institutions.

The Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, with support from the MSICTS and the Mount Sinai Medical Center, will integrate and greatly expand its contributions to clinical and translational research by providing a home where imaging faculty and resources can be focused on the current and future needs of patients, caregivers, and researchers.

The rapid development of technologies such as real-time functional imaging at the molecular level is opening up completely new avenues of research and providing solutions that can be translated into better patient care. The Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute will invent and develop such technologies, creating a platform that basic and clinical researchers at Mount Sinai and elsewhere can apply to accelerate their research efforts. In addition, the Institute's mission includes the education of researchers, students, practicing physicians, technicians.

The overall mission of Center for Patient Oriented Research, Training, Education, and Development (CePORTED) is to facilitate the recruitment, training, mentoring and retention of individuals considering or committed to careers in clinical/translational (C/T) research in order to improve individual patient care and the well-being of society. To accomplish this, CePORTED will integrate C/T research opportunities within the institutes and centers of the Mount Sinai Medical Center; provide central organization and oversight for C/T research education and training programs; introduce a PhD program in Clinical Research; oversee a K12 program; expand clinical research experiences for medical students; and maximize integration among existing inter-disciplinary degree or certificate granting programs.

CePORTED aims to provide rigorous and unique educational opportunities for trainees from multiple healthcare professions in diverse stages of training, ranging from medical students to faculty members, to prepare them to pursue independent careers in C/T research and realize their goal of engaging in collaborative science, utilizing cutting edge innovative research tools and information technologies.

In addition, each CePORTED program will include expanded collaborative efforts with The Center for Community and Academic Research Partnerships to provide underrepresented minority (URM) and disadvantaged candidates with the training necessary to become academic leaders as well as to foster the career development of trainees interested in health disparities research.