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Washington, D.C. — Georgetown University Medical Center commemorated the opening of its new, NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) on September 27. The GCRC--one of only 77 such centers in the nation--provides a state-of-the-art infrastructure for conducting clinical trials and performing basic scientific research.
The GCRC, which will receive approximately $2 million in NIH funding annually for the duration of Georgetown's five-year grant, is a part of a national network of NIH-funded Research Centers, typically housed in academic medical centers such as Georgetown's. The mission of NIH's GCRC program is to provide an optimal setting for clinical trials and to provide an educational and training resource for investigators interested in clinical research. Although Georgetown's GCRC is used for a wide array of clinical research activities, priority for the use of the Center is goven to those investigators who are conducting NIH-funded projects.
"The resources of the new GCRC greatly enhance our research capabilities at Georgetown," said Program Director Raymond Woosley, MD, Ph.D. "The GCRC allows us to make exciting advances in bringing biomedical research from the bench to the bedside, turning basic scientific knowledge into new and improved methods of healthcare."
The Center, located in Georgetown University Hospital's main building, includes resources such as specialized research nurses, biostatisticians, research dieticians, highly specialized computer hardware and software systems for data management and analysis, and sophisticated laboratories for both inpatient and outpatient research.
Georgetown's GCRC currently directs its research focus in three primary areas; women's health research; children's health research (through a collaborative partnership with the Children's National Medical Center); and "translational" research--meaning research that uses basic scientific discoveries to create new and improved methods of treating patients. | 
