Clinical Research Support

This core group promotes and supports efficient, safe and high-quality investigator-initiated clinical trials. Teams at two locations – one on the USC Health Sciences Campus and the other at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles – assist research teams with protocol development, activation, conduct and close-out, leveraging extensive resources within the SC CTSI and across USC, CHLA, and our clinical and community partners.

SC CTSI Clinical Research Support at USC

The SC CTSI offers the following types of clinical research assistance at USC:

• USC Clinical Research Support (CRS): The Clinical Research Support group provides services such as Research Navigation; Clinical Research Coordinator Pool; Study Participant Recruitment Support; Regulatory Support (IND/IDE application assistance); Budget Development Support.
• CRS also administers a voucher funding program with a rolling deadline that provides awards up to $3,000 to support clinical and/or community research projects. Applicants can propose to add new data to an existing ("parent") clinical or community project to develop new research that is distinct from the aims of the parent project; or to collect information de novo to support development of new clinical and/or community research. For full eligibility requirements and to access the application form, click here.
• For investigators and study teams that are interested in conducting multicenter human studies at USC or CHLA, our institution participates in the Trial Innovation Network (TIN). TIN is a collaborative network from NIH NCATS designed to streamline the conduct of multicenter studies by leveraging the expertise and resources of the CTSA Consortium.
• USC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU): The CTU provides a broad range of services to assist in the initiation and conduct of human studies. These services support the conduct of study visits ranging from low to high complexity (specializing in medium to high complexity).
• The CTU at USC provides a well-equipped physical space, highly qualified and well-trained clinical research staff including a nurse practitioner, skilled research nurses, lab technicians, and research phlebotomists; a research laboratory, and the CTU Specimen Processing Center. The resources are well-suited for early-phase clinical trials drug development studies that require serial blood draws for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assessments and for mechanistic studies that may require a multidisciplinary approach and multiple evaluations of physiologic and hormonal changes. Intensive monitoring for patient safety can be provided as required by the specific clinical trial. The CTU is dedicated to providing excellence in clinical research conduct, compliance with all relevant regulations, and the highest degree of patient safety.
• Biostatistics: Through training and direct consultation, this group provides high quality, easy-to-access biostatistics service and guidance to investigator-initiated clinical studies and trials from concept to close-out.

SC CTSI Clinical Research Support at CHLA

Currently available resources at the CHLA location include: Research Recruitment; Research Navigation; Clinical Research Coordinator Pool; Regulatory and IRB Support; Clinical Trials Units; Research Nurses; Research Education. Please visit the CHLA site for more info.

Click here for a listing of our current and future initiatives:

• Clinical research harmonization efforts (current)
• COVID-19 Biorepository (current)
• Quality by design (current)
• Bravo High School / California State University Los Angeles Internship Program (future)
• The Self-career Training, Education, Life-long Learning Advancement Resource Collaboration with Georgia CTSA (future)
• Plain Language Results Dissemination Initiative (future)