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Mission
The mission of the combined adult and pediatric General Clinical Research Center (CRC) at the University of Chicago is to provide the resources and environment to the faculty of the University of Chicago to conduct human subjects research of the highest scientific merit. Our priority is to support investigator-initiated research projects that receive primary funding from other components of the National Institutes of Health. A broad range of studies of normal and abnormal function of the human body, and investigations into the cause, progression, prevention, control, and cure of human disease are conducted under CRC auspices.

A second goal is to use our expertise and facilities to promote the education and training of clinical investigators at every stage of career development. To realize this goal, we offer programs and opportunities to undergraduate students, medical and graduate students in other biomedical disciplines, housestaff, and postdoctoral trainees.

Thirdly, it is our aim to promote optimal collaboration among basic laboratory researchers and clinical scientists to assure that advances in both arenas are quickly and efficiently translated to improvements in health care for all people.

Overview
The adult General Clinical Research Center (CRC) at the University of Chicago was funded by the National Institutes of Health in 1961, making it among the first such centers nationwide. That first grant award amounted to $225,000, about a tenth of what it costs today to fund a first rate, medium sized CRC. In the intervening years since we began studying patients and healthy volunteers under the GCRC Program at the University of Chicago, we have enjoyed continuous funding from the NIH and uninterrupted academic, educational and intellectual productivity.

In 1967, a 2 bed pediatric CRC was opened in Wyler Children's Hospital (now, the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital). By 1984, it was apparent that the effectiveness of both the adult and pediatric units could be considerably enhanced by combining facilities, staff, and administrative and financial resources. By that time the Center occupied a discrete physical space within the University of Chicago Hospitals, and employed a fully dedicated staff of nurses, nutrition experts, laboratory technicians, and administrative and clerical personnel. Today, the staff, equipment and furnishings of the CRC are all fully geared towards the care of healthy volunteers as well as ill subjects, ranging in age from infancy to adulthood and old age.

In the spring of 1991, the CRC celebrated two major landmarks in its history: the 30th anniversary of the Center, and the grand opening of the newly and beautifully renovated unit on the W-5 corridor of the Gilman-Smith wing of the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health Systems, the home we occupy today. Judith Vaitukaitis, M.D., now Director of the National Center for Research Resources of the NIH, honored us with her presence on this memorable day.

The Clinical Research Center currently supports about 80 different research protocols, conducted by more than 100 senior and junior faculty, trainee and staff investigators, from a wide range of areas of biomedical inquiry. Many represent collaborative efforts among specialists from diverse disciplines, including pediatric and adult endocrinology, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, clinical pharmacology, anesthesiology, gastroenterology, oncology, molecular genetics and pulmonology.

We are especially well known for our research in:

  • diabetes and related disorders of insulin secretion and glucose metabolism
  • thyroid disease
  • Cushing's syndrome
  • disorders of growth and pubertal progression in children and adolescents
  • the many facets of polycystic ovary syndrome
  • bone and mineral metabolism, and osteoporosis
  • cancer chemotherapy and the pharmacokinetics of antineoplastic drugs
  • the circadian clock and hormonal rhythms
  • asthma

Please browse through the rest of our Website for many more details on our programs and activities for researchers, trainees, research volunteers, and patients. We welcome inquiries from investigators, grant-makers in government, foundations, industry, and the private sector, as well as the general public. Contact Program Director Roy E. Weiss, M.D, Ph.D, Administrative Director Bushra H. Rehman, MPA, or any member of our management staff for more information.

Credits
The GCRC at the University of Chicago is funded by grant number M01 RR000055 from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.