Clinical and Translational Research Unit — Part of your Clinical Study Team

Engaging the right team is essential to the success of quality clinical research programs. Multi-disciplinary teams are required to perform a range of study functions, including regulatory compliance, protocol maintenance, patient care, sample collection, lab processing, and data collection--just to name a few. No single individual could expect to fulfill all of these tasks.

The Clinical and Translational Research Unit (CTRU), within the School of Medicine’s Research Office, is uniquely placed to collaborate with Stanford Principal Investigators and study teams to provide specialized services for clinical trials and human subject research programs.

The CTRU provides critical infrastructure to clinical studies, facilitating the translation of basic scientific discovery into the next generation of diagnostics and treatments. On the frontier of precision health efforts across the research community, the CTRU’s mission is to offer research-focused ambulatory care and laboratory services for both adult and pediatric clinical/translational research studies, including first-in-human phase I trials, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic sampling, biofluid and tissue collection, dietary information, vaccination trials, and a broad range of tissue and biospecimen laboratory services across the multiple medical disciplines in our research community.

“The CTRU team is working closely with many studies funded by the IMA. The flexibility and collaboration shown by the CTRU leadership to assist with facilitating research has been significant. Utilizing CTRU infrastructure and leveraging CTRU staff research expertise has been fundamental to the successful performance of many COVID-19 trials over the past year.”- Chaitan Khosla, Director, Innovative Medicines Accelerator, Stanford University

Under the direction of Nurse Manager Rich Brotherton, CTRU is able to support investigational procedures by specially trained nurses, medical assistants, and phlebotomists.  Lab Service Manager Amrita Herkal, and her team of highly experienced laboratory staff, are able to advise on tissue and cell isolation, in addition to standardized biospecimen processing, logistics, and research-grade diagnostic testing.

CTRU staff are uniquely trained to carry out research protocols with an emphasis on patient safety and research quality and make significant contributions to clinical research at Stanford. The approximately 350 trials that are supported by CTRU annually have resulted in numerous scientific publications, FDA drug approvals, and broader community awareness for Stanford’s involvement in clinical research through articles in popular press.

CTRU is ready to collaborate as an integral part of your study team, contributing to the success of your clinical studies. Talk to us to see how we can help your research and maximize the use of the extensive infrastructure at CTRU.

To discuss your clinical research project with CTRU, please contact ctru-notify@stanford.edu

For additional information, please contact https://med.stanford.edu/ctru.html

Funding is provided to the CTRU via the NIH-NCATS-CTSA grant # 5UL1TR003142.

NIH CTSA Grant Acknowledgement Guidelines