Eesti teaduse infrastruktuuride teekaart - ETIS

CLINICAL RESEARCH BIOLOOGIA- JA MEDITSIINITEADUSED | BIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCES33NATIONAL CENTRE FOR TRANSLATIONALAND CLINICAL RESEARCHThe medical research infrastructure is based on the translational research complexconsisting of an experimental animal centre, a medical basic research laboratoryand a functional imaging centre.Translational medicine is a newlyemerging branch of medical science,which is integrating biomedical basicresearch with clinical practice withaim to improve the current status oftherapeutics and welfare of patients.Translational medicine explores thepathogenesis of diseases, developsbetter drugs, works on the preventionof diseases and aims to improve thehealth of people. Translational medicineis the process that turns fundamentalbiological discoveries into practicalmedical applications. The aim of theNational Centre for Translational andClinical Research (NCTCR) is to createan internationally competitive environmentfor a variety of medical researchersin Estonia and to enhance benchto-bedsidetranslation. Fast translationof results from fundamental researchinto clinical practice should support theimprovement of health and quality oflife in Estonia.EXISTINGINFRASTRUCTUREThe Medical Research Infrastructure isbased on the equipment and competencesof the University of Tartu (UT),Tartu University Hospital (TUH) andthe Estonian University of Life Sciences(EULS). A new building of the Centre ofTranslational Research will be constructedby 2011-2012. Tartu has alreadygot operative animal facilities for smalland for large experimental animals.UT has technologies for metabolomic,genomic and toxicological studies atcellular, tissue and organism level. TUHhas functional imaging technologies forhuman studies. A tissue bank and clinicalsampling logistics have been worked outas a collaborative effort of UT and TUC.NEW INFRASTRUCTUREThe existing equipment and competencesneed upgrading and additionalkey technologies for further development.Moreover, research capacity hasincreased significantly in recent past.The main goal for establishing thiscentre is to develop a supporting infrastructureto ensure the sustainability ofthe medical research in Estonia – newequipment and technologies for therecently built laboratory complex witha modern experimental animal centre,to fulfil the increased medical researchdemand. The established infrastructureincorporates functional units with threedifferent objectives:1) Fundamental research unit aims tounderstand disease mechanisms andto identify drug targets. This unit haslaboratories for working with dangerousinfectious diseases (e.g. HIV, hepatitisviruses, etc), for regenerative medicine,the tissue bank and laboratories withmodern analytical technologies (metabolomics,genomics, glycomics); 2) Diseasemodels unit aims to validate drugtargets and to develop new interventionand diagnostic strategies by using animalmodels for diseases. Unit involvesanimal houses for small animals and forlarge experimental animals, technologiesfor modelling diseases on animals,laboratories for studying animals andmodelling infectious diseases. 3) Functionalimaging unit works on the testingof new drugs and diagnostic methods.This unit is involved with application ofmodern imaging technologies (magneticresonance imaging, radiological imaging,fluorescence, luminescence, etc) onhumans and experimental animals.PARTNERSHIPSThe main partner for the NCTCR inEurope is the European AdvancedTranslational Research Infrastructure inMedicine (EATRIS). In addition we havecollaboration with the European Institutefor Biomedical Imaging Research(EIBIR). Our foreign parners includeMRC Harwell Centre, King’s CollegeLondon, Karolinska Institute and otherleading European medical researchinstitutes. In Estonia our partners arethe University of Tartu, Tartu UniversityHospital, the Estonian University of LifeSciences and other medical researchestablishments and hospitals.http://biomedicum.ut.ee/cetm/