Great universities foster freedom of thought.

Great universities offer the freedom to challenge old ideas and chart new paths.

Great universities are home to the power of knowledge and discovery.

And the best universities in the world chart new paths of intellectual inquiry, forge new relationships, and create a scholarly institute that becomes the birthplace of the future.

What’s  creating such an environment at UC Irvine?  One catalyst is a novel institute that fosters what is found at all great universities – the freedom to share ideas, to challenge and discover.

UC Irvine’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) helps the university reach the next level of medical excellence by breaking down barriers that prevent scientific discoveries from making their way from the lab to a patient’s bedside. The institute is a model for how an interdisciplinary, integrated and collaborative approach results in groundbreaking research that works to treat diseases and injuries.

UC Irvine was funded by the prestigious National Institute of Health. It represents the next step in medical research by bringing together university experts in pediatrics, neurology, nursing, cancer, genetics and molecular immunology. These ICTS doctors and scientists work together with industry, foundations and community physicians, to leverage their talents to advance medical research and improve care.

Already, such multidisciplinary collaborations have resulted in better care for people with debilitating neurological diseases and improved treatment for burn and trauma patients.  They have created new methods to protect the health of babies and children, and practical medical devices that make life easier for people with chronic diseases like diabetes.
The collaboration of doctors, scientists and engineers from across the university produces real life results – like high definition three- dimensional medical imaging, used during surgery, to delicately remove cancer while avoiding healthy tissue.

These technologies and methods now save lives every day. They also have enabled people to work and play when before they would have faced blindness, disability and the uncertainty and fear of recurring disease.

Sparking medical discovery: