In 1959, a Congressional Mandate directed the National Institutes of Health to establish a network of General Clinical Research Centers (GCRC) across the United States to create an environment and infrastructure for participant-oriented research.  The University of Alabama at Birmingham was funded in 1960 as one of the six original national GCRCs. The center formally opened on June 23, 1962, on 3 West of University Hospital. In 1999, the GCRC moved to a new facility, the 9th floor of the Medical Education Building (MEB), that included inpatient beds, outpatient facilities, a processing laboratory, a metabolic kitchen, and a nearby computer facility.  Over the next several years, two specialized laboratories, one for genetic/DNA studies and one for metabolic studies, were added offsite.

In 2006, consistent with the NIH Roadmap initiative, NIH began phasing out GCRCs and began funding Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA).  According to the National CTSA website (http://www.ctsaweb.org), “The CTSA consortium aims to improve human health by transforming the research and training environment thereby enhancing the efficiency and quality of clinical and translational research.”

The CTSA consortium funded 12 institutions in 2006, with new members added in 2007 (12), 2008 (14), and 2009 (8).  Approximately 60 CTSAs will be funded when the program is fully implemented in 2012.

The UAB CTSA was funded in 2008 under the leadership of Lisa Guay-Woodford, MD, PI. Under the Award, the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) was formed with “a vision to transform the university's environment by building productive and efficient interdisciplinary research teams through educational ingenuity, regulatory reorganization, resource coordination, and methodological innovation.” The mission is “to develop a transformative infrastructure that spans the spectrum from preclinical research to bench-to-bedside translation to community implementation.”

As one of the nine components in the CCTS, the Participant and Clinical Interactions Resources (PCIR) replaced the GCRC.  In January 2009, the PCIR outpatient facility was relocated to the 15th floor of Jefferson Tower (JT 15) with inpatient accommodations on 8 MEB.  JT 15 is currently being renovated to accommodate the metabolic kitchen and additional administrative offices for the CCTS.

Since transitioning from the GCRC, the PCIR has provided services for nearly 100 studies serving the needs of over 150 investigators.  Studies comprise specialties in anesthesiology, epidemiology, exercise physiology, dentistry, genetics, nutrition, psychiatry, in addition to multiple areas within internal medicine and surgery.