Eric Topol, MD
Program Director of the CTSA
Eric Topol, MD is the Director of STSI and will serve as Program Director of the CTSA. Dr. Topol has extensive experience to lead the CTSA. As a translational investigator, he was the first physician to administer recombinant t-PA to a patient in 1984 and ultimately followed up with designing and executing the largest clinical trial ever performed in acute myocardial infarction known as GUSTO. This trial enrolled 41,021 patients in 20 countries throughout the world and was the precursor to 4 other GUSTO trials. Dr. Topol also led the bench to bedside efforts for platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (abciximab, eptifibatide), P2Y12 inhibition (clopidogrel) and direct thrombin inhibitors (recombinant hirudin and bivalirudin). In the past decade, Dr. Topol’s research efforts shifted to genetics and genomics of coronary artery disease. He set up the first large cardiovascular biobank of 10,000 patients and performed the first high-throughput SNP testing for myocardial infarction. He was Program Director for a NIH flagship Specialized Center for Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) P50 grant from 2004-2006 focused on molecular determinants of coronary artery disease. He was also PI for the genomic determinants of response to anti-platelet agents project in another SCCOR Program on Thrombosis during the same time period.
As Chief Academic Officer of Cleveland Clinic and Provost/Founder of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University between 2001 and 2006, he formed the Division of Clinical Research, organized the 32 disease-oriented programs, and initiated the strategies and oversight for successful new Roadmap K-12 and GCRC awards to Cleveland Clinic and Case Western. He served on the Executive Committee of the K-12 Clinician Scholar program and is well suited to be the STSI KL2 Program Director. The Medical School he founded was the first in the country dedicated to training of clinical investigators, and Dr. Topol was involved in its curriculum development and recruitment of the first two classes of students. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Association of Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. Dr. Topol is a proven architect and change agent of highly complex academic organizations, including leading multi-disciplinary NIH grants, multi-national large clinical trial networks, innovative educational programs and medical schools, and the integration of basic and clinical science across health systems.
Scripps Translational Science Institute
The mission of the Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) is to innovate, transform and fully integrate clinical and translational research. The Scripps Translational Science Institute connects the facilities of Scripps Health with the facilities of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). The Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI), in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium is transforming how clinical and translational research is conducted, ultimately enabling researchers to provide new treatments more efficiently and quickly to patients. For more information, please visit www.stsiweb.org.