Deviit Tripathy, M.D., Ph.D, assistant clinical professor at the UT Health Science Center and director of Diabetes Research at the Frederic C. Bartter General Clinical Research Center, tests a patients's response to insulin infusion and measures how efficiently the patient uses glucose for a diabetes study.
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In 1982, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital landed an historic grant. The $272,000 award from the National Institutes of Health would establish a new core research facility to support clinical research by UT Health Science Center faculty in a veterans health care setting.

On April 20, 1983, the new center was dedicated as the Frederic C. Bartter General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) in honor of Dr. Bartter, a former faculty member of national renown who made many important contributions to the development of research programs at the Health Science Center. From its inception, the GCRC has occupied space in the VA hospital, now known as the Audie Murphy Division of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, but this location was enabled by an excellent cooperative partnership between the VA hospital and the UT Health Science Center.

GCRC has received continuous NIH funding
The Bartter GCRC has received 25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health totaling $42.5 million. The grant for fiscal year 2008 is $3.3 million. In the past fiscal year, the Bartter GCRC supported 88 research studies by 36 scientists from 21 departments in all five schools of the Health Science Center. In its history, 200 investigators conducting nearly 800 research projects have utilized its resources.

Multidisciplinary core research facility
The GCRC was designed to serve as a multidisciplinary core research facility providing clinical resource support as a venue for human research studies. The many services provided have included skilled nursing care, X-rays, EKGs, bone density scans, blood draws and sample processing.

Michael Lichtenstein, M.D., M.Sc., is director of the Bartter General Clinical Research Center.

100 percent self-supporting for 25 years
“The Bartter Center has been 100 percent self-supporting through the NIH grant, and has of course benefited from the very solid partnership with the VA,” said GCRC Director Michael Lichtenstein, M.D., M.Sc. “This center has fostered clinical research of the highest quality and has provided educational training programs for the conduct of clinical research with the highest ethical standards.”

Clinical research accomplishments
A few of the many clinical research accomplishments of the Bartter GCRC include:

Oncology —Administration of cancer drugs to humans for the first time in Phase I research trials. These drugs include:

• FOLFOX, now a widely used chemotherapy agent for colorectal cancer
  
• CPT-11, a chemotherapy agent known as Irinotecan
  
• Gemcitabine, a chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer
  
• Taxol, a chemotherapy for breast cancer.

All of these have become standard treatments for these cancers and were given for the first time at the Bartter Center.

Neurology — Research for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and studies of a rare condition called Pompe’s disease, in which the body fails to produce an enzyme needed to break down glucose.

Infectious Diseases — Research on tuberculosis, HIV and other infectious diseases, and a research trial of a vaccine for shingles/herpes zoster that determined the vaccine to be effective.

Genetic Epidemiology — Serving as a research site for the Family Heart Study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. The Family Heart Study is a nationally recognized genetic epidemiology research study.

Diabetes — Serving as a primary site for research on insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, as well as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a condition also called “fatty liver” that is seen in patients with diabetes. The latter studies led recently to the first effective drug therapy for this common disease.

Pediatrics — Support for research of Chromosome 18 abnormalities.

Looking to the future
“We have much to remember as we celebrate the conclusion of our 25th year as an NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center,” reflected John D. Roache, Ph.D., associate director of the Bartter GCRC. “We also have a grand vision to diversify and expand our operations for the future under the CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award).”

The National Institutes of Health is creating the next generation of clinical research centers by making CTSAs to institutions nationwide. The Health Science Center has taken steps to be considered for a CTSA, including the submission of a five-year, $55 million proposal to the NIH on Nov. 7.

Bartter Visiting Professor lecture set for Nov. 13
“Each year, the Bartter GCRC sponsors a visiting professor in memory of Dr. Bartter,” said Robert A. Clark, M.D., assistant vice president for research and director of the Health Science Center’s CTSA initiative. “The Bartter Professorship coming up on Nov. 13 will include a formal declaration by a national CTSA leader of the plans for the future under the new CTSA funding mechanism.”

Lars Berglund, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean of clinical and translational research at The University of California, Davis, will speak on this topic by addressing “The Clinical and Translational Science Award Initiative: Looking Back and Looking Forward” at the Department of Medicine Research Seminar. His presentation begins at noon Tuesday, Nov. 13, in the School of Medicine, Room 209L, on central campus.

Dr. Berglund also will speak at Medicine Grand Rounds at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the School of Medicine, Room 409L. His topic will be “Lipoprotein (a): Translational Approaches for a Challenging Cardiovascular Risk Factor.”

Before the transition to a CTSA, however, those who have been involved with the Bartter GCRC are savoring the fruits of a quarter-century of exemplary efforts.

“I think it is safe to say that clinical research at the Health Science Center would not have been nearly as productive had the Bartter Center not come into existence,” Dr. Lichtenstein said. “Clinical advancements in this setting, and education of researchers on how to conduct clinical studies, have in many ways benefited the public.”