Clinical and Translational Research Services Core

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Clinical and Translational Research Services (CTRS) Core of the University of Washington (UW) Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) is dedicated to human studies. CTRS Core services fall within 3 service areas: 1) Study Implementation, 2) Imaging, and 3) Nutrition and Physical Activity. Study Implementation services encompass a range of clinical research support including blood draws and sample processing, research nursing, research study coordination, and biostatistical analyses. Imaging services include body composition assessment in humans using dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), quantitation of hepatic, intramuscular, and visceral fat by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and specialized imaging using brain MRI to quantify hypothalamic gliosis. Nutrition and Physical Activity services include menu design, food frequency questionnaires and dietary recalls, controlled feeding studies, and exercise training and testing. The CTRS Core provides access to a fully-equipped Clinical Research Unit that was created specifically to support clinical research in diabetes, obesity, nutrition, and metabolism and is located at the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute’s combined clinical and research facility. Through a collaborative arrangement with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center that reduces cost and improves access for our Affiliate Investigators, we also leverage a fully staffed nutrition kitchen for metabolic feeding studies and a nationally-recognized nutrition assessment resource. In this way, the CTRS Core markedly enhances the clinical and translational component of the UW NORC and serves the needs of clinical, translational, and epidemiologic Affiliate Investigators across multiple institutions, schools, departments, and divisions within the large UW system. Interdisciplinary collaborations amongst these researchers, collaborations with basic science researchers, and utilization of other UW NORC biomedical research Cores are common and will continue to be actively facilitated during the next cycle. In sum, the newly created CTRS Core has proven itself capable of meeting the following Specific Aims to: 1) support members of the research base with cost-effective access to state-of-the-art techniques and resources for nutrition- and obesity-related research in humans, 2) advance nutrition and obesity science by offering and optimizing specialized clinical and translational research services, and 3) educate members in the conduct of clinical obesity and nutrition research and human imaging studies through training, consultation, and collaboration.