Trinity Translational Medicine Institute

Opened on 31st March 2017

 

Trinity Translational Medicine Institute (TTMI) was officially opened by the Provost (Dr. Patrick Prendergast) on Friday 31st March. The Institute is located within the St James’s Hospital campus in Dublin 8, and brings scientists and clinicians together to develop new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat a range of pressing health concerns.

During the opening address, the Provost described how ‘TTMI will bridge and consolidate all our areas of expertise. It will consolidate patient-orientated research across Trinity, and the affiliated hospitals, creating a viable process, based on international best practice, for delivering basic to translational biomedical research. The close proximity, here on St James’s, of the Wellcome Trust – HRB Clinical Research Facility enables the expedient translation of clinical research breakthroughs into opportunities for regulated clinical trials.’

TTMI also incorporates researchers at the Meath Foundation Research Laboratory at the Trinity Centre, Tallaght Hospital, the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin. Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Schools of Medicine, Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science are the founding partners of TTMI and are represented by research scientists and clinicians committed to prioritising patient driven clinical research. The substantive co-operative institute currently houses over 40 principal investigators (PI’s) and 150 scientists.

TTMI also has a significant national role to play towards educating the next generation of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, the location of TTMI within the acute hospital setting and the adoption of a collaborative multidisciplinary approach towards patient centered research guarantees the dissemination impactful clinical research. This will in-turn lead to the development of improved diagnostics, therapeutics and devices, while also informing policy and clinical practice.

The Provost indicated that TTMI ‘draws together so many of Trinity’s strengths in health science research and education. It’s the missing piece of the jigsaw, if you like, that allows us to train the next generation of clinicians and basic researchers in translational medicine, to interface with industry and think globally; and in doing so to expand Ireland’s medical technology and healthcare export industry.’