Director's Message - 2019

Welcome to the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, home to Columbia University’s NIH-NCATS funded Clinical and Translational Science Award(link is external and opens in a new window) (CTSA) Program hub.  It is with great pleasure that I partner with Columbia University, New-York Presbyterian Hospital, and New York State Psychiatric Institute communities to further our mission, programs, and services.

The Irving Institute’s mission is to accelerate discoveries, knowledge, and innovation to improve human health across the lifespan for diverse populations in upper Manhattan and around the world. To achieve our mission we train and support clinical and translational researchers at Columbia. As one of more than 50 CTSA Program hubs in the United States, we also collaborate with our partner academic institutions across a national network to advance research to practice. Our mission builds upon a rich history of basic and clinical research at Columbia and honors our late benefactors, Herbert and Florence Irving. 

To implement our goals, the Irving Institute is comprised of 11 key functions, labeled “Resources”, and two cores, all led by expert faculty and staff. Our central administration unit is an integrated team that supports the ongoing evaluation of research and educational activities. We provide over 70 different services and programs focused on education and training, seed funding, bioinformatics, biostatistics, clinical research, lifespan research and special populations, regulatory knowledge and bioethics, and an off-site community facility and health informatics websites. In partnership with Columbia Technology Ventures and Columbia’s Precision Medicine Initiative, we provide Columbia-specific expertise through a translational research accelerator program for the commercialization of novel therapeutics and robust precision medicine initiatives. To complement our programmatic offerings, we host numerous events throughout the year including seminars, lectures, courses and symposia.

The impact of our programs is significant to the Columbia community. In 2017-2018, we provided services to 380 investigators engaged in more than 500 research projects. Our CTSA Program grant was cited on almost 200 publications and generated $50 million in downstream return-on-investment research revenue for Columbia. Nationally, we received recognition for our initiatives on the opioid crisis and the recruitment of research participants in diverse communities. You can read more about these contributions in an entirely new section about our impact.

At this time of great scientific and medical innovation, it is our responsibility and our privilege to provide the vision and stewardship that accelerates translation of biomedical discoveries to improve societal health. At the Irving Institute, it is our passion to empower and enable our outstanding clinical and translational research communities to achieve their goals and vision and, in doing so, to improve human health across the lifespan for the diverse upper Manhattan community and New York City. 

I look forward to pursuing this mission with all of you and to continuing to realize the enormous promise of our creativity, innovation, and passion. Please enjoy our new website and explore ways to optimize your use of our resources and services. We welcome your feedback on the website and our programs overall so that we can enhance them further for you, our research community.

Muredach P. Reilly, MBBCh, MSCE
Director, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research