The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded the University of Florida and Florida State University a $43 million grant to turn scientific discoveries into real-world health solutions for individuals and communities in Florida.  

According to a UF Health press release, the grant offers infrastructure and resources for the UF-FSU Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hub “to support research that bridges laboratory discoveries with clinical practice and community impact.” 

The award is made up of a seven-year grant and two training grants. The funds will help expand both UF and FSU’s role “as a clinical and translational science hub for the state,” the release said. 

“Continued investment like this positions the UF-FSU hub as a national leader in advancing translational science, while demonstrating our priority of fostering collaboration across disciplines to address the most pressing health challenges,” Stephen Motew, UF Health president and system CEO, said in the release. 

The NIH training grants include: 

• The K12 Career Development Program: The K12 program offers mentored support, financial support and training for clinical and translational scientists who are in the early part of their careers. Dr. Faheem Guirgis, an associate professor of emergency medicine at UF, and Dr. Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, a professor and chief of the division of biology of aging at UF, and Dr. Henna Budhwani, an endowed professor in the FSU College of Nursing are leading the program.  

• The T32 Training Grant: The program provides trainees who are earning their doctorate degrees with the skills and experience necessary to become translational research leaders. The program is directed by Dr. Wayne McCormack, a distinguished teaching scholar and professor in the UF Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine.

Established in 2008, the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is led by Director Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., the Phyllis Kottler Friedman professor in neurosurgery and lead principal investigator for the UF-FSU CTSA hub award. 

UF CTSI is part of the national CTSA program, a network of 61 medical research institutions (called CTSA hubs) across the country.  

FSU became a CTSA hub partner with UF in 2019. 

“Together with our partners at FSU and across the national CTSA network, we are committed to ensuring that research is not only innovative but also deeply connected to the communities it serves,” said Mitchell, who also serves as the associate director for translation and innovation at the UF Health Cancer Center. 

The $43 million award is the latest NIH-funded grant UF and UF Health have received. In October 2024, UF Health researches were also awarded an $11.8 million grant to study how combinations of antibiotics can fight resistant bacteria.