Anecdotes from ITMAT: Building Capacity for Translational Science

Abstract

Penn’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) is the world’s first academic structure devoted to translational science. With programmatic, infrastructural, and educational components, it has more than 2,000 members drawn from all the schools of Penn, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the Wistar and Monell Institutes, and the University of the Sciences. The conception, development, and features of ITMAT are discussed here along with lessons learned over the past nine years. What do we mean by translational science? It means so many different things to different people—and perhaps that partly explains why it has been controversial. I was initially asked to write an article in support of the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium and its relevance to bioinnovation; this was to be the “pro” article in a debate format. When the editors were unsuccessful in recruiting a CTSA principal investigator (PI) to adopt the “con” position (in a public forum), it was suggested that I take the opportunity to argue with myself. Although perverse, this proposition was tempting; Dubliners have never formed a movement without rapidly progressing to the split. However, given that ITMAT was the world’s first academic entity designed specifically to foster translational science, I thought it might be more helpful to reflect on the evolution of the concept, its reduction to practice, and lessons learned. We could then consider the challenges and the opportunities confronting the CTSA program in the future—among them how best to foster bioinnovation. A word of caution: reflections on this Joycean journey are from a strictly personal perspective.