History

The Indiana CTSI was founded in 2008 as a partnership between Indiana University and Purdue University. In 2009, University of Notre Dame joined the organization. Founder Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, was then a professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and founding director of the Department of Psychiatry’s Neuroscience Clinical Research Center. While serving as director, he also led Indiana’s largest statewide research enterprise, serving as associate vice president for research and clinical affairs at IU, executive associate dean for research affairs at IU School of Medicine and executive vice president of academic affairs for clinical research at Indiana University Health.

In 2020, Sharon Moe, MD, and Sarah Wiehe, MD, MPH, assumed the roles of co-leadership for the Indiana CTSI, which by then also included Regenstrief Institute among its partners. Dr. Moe, who is Stuart A. Kleit Professor of Medicine as well as director of the Division of Nephrology, undertook leadership for the institute’s basic and clinical research initiatives, while Dr. Wiehe, who is the Jean and Jerry Bepko Scholar in Pediatrics and director of the Division of Children’s Health Services Research, undertook the leadership of its data informatics and community engagement research initiatives.

Since 2008, the Indiana CTSI has been consecutively funded, securing four multi-million-dollar grants from the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program at the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to build research infrastructure, recruit talent and identify the Indiana’s greatest health challenges. Its latest NIH renewal in 2023 allows the institute to support clinical and translational research across both the state and the nation in order to improve the health of Indiana residents. In addition, the longstanding collaborative nature of the Indiana CTSI’s network has established a foundation of trust and transparency among partners that promotes health equity and inclusiveness in research.

2023: The Indiana CTSI receives $38M NIH grant to advance health research in Indiana

2018: The Indiana CTSI receives a third $33 million NIH grant renewal to fund the institute for the next five years. The institute also launches its community-facing “All IN for Health” initiative, which aims to sign up at least 100,000 Indiana residents to its health research volunteer registry over the next three years.

2017: Through Indiana University, the Indiana CTSI partners with multiple institutions to launch a pilot program to help female and minority scientists become entrepreneurs. The institute also partners with IU School of Medicine to recruit leading scientists to Indiana in collaboration with life science leaders across the state, through the school’s Indiana Collaborative Initiative for Talent Enrichment (INCITE), which is funded by the Lilly Endowment.

2016: Carmel Egan, a top project management and product development executive at Eli Lilly and Co., joins the Indiana CTSI as Chief Operating Officer.

2015: Indiana CTSI Director Anantha Shekhar is selected to lead IU School of Medicine research.

2014: The Indiana CTSI launches a multi-state consortium, called the Strategic Pharma-Academic Research Consortium for Translational Medicine (SPARC), to encourage translational medicine collaborations across academia and industry. The institute also debuts its Patient Engagement Core, also known as Research Jam, which offers help from an interdisciplinary team of community-engaged research experts who work with doctors, patients and community members to ensure that health research, interventions and communications are more relevant to the community they aim to serve. Additionally, an Indiana CTSI-supported collaboration among IU and Notre Dame brings new imaging services to researchers.

2013: The Indiana CTSI receives a second five-year, $30 million grant renewal award from the NIH. The institute also opens its 18,500-square-foot Children’s Clinical Research Center (CCRC)—a new pediatric research facility that provides a family-friendly environment while dramatically increasing resources for scientists working to improve medical care for the children of Indiana—and the Neurosciences Clinical Research Center, which provides a space to provide care to patients participating in neuroscience clinical trials at IU School of Medicine adjacent to the researchers conducting these studies in  Goodman Hall. Additionally, the Indiana CTSI reached an agreement with Lab Corp., a leading global drug development services company, to increase clinical trials conducted on behalf of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies at IU using a newly renovated 33,000-square-foot patient center at IU Health University Hospital, in addition to older space in the same building. Also in 2013, the Indiana CTSI and the IU School of Medicine launch a new center to increase efficacy and reduce costs at health care providers.

2009: Additional support for the Indiana CTSI arrives as Notre Dame joins the partnership, as well as several multimillion-dollar “supplemental” awards from the NIH granted to create tuition support and fellowship programs to prepare new scientists to engage in clinical and translational research.

2008: Indiana University School of Medicine receives its first $25 million NIH award to establish the Indiana CTSI in 2008, plus about $25 million in matching grants from IU and Purdue, the state of Indiana and public-private partners such as Eli Lilly and Co.