# UCLA IDDRC: Translational Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2021 · $191,563

## Abstract

Clinical Translational Core: Abstract
The mission of the Translational Clinical Core of the UCLA IDDRC, established in 2015, is to support high quality,
multidisciplinary, collaborative clinical translational research advancing knowledge of causes, prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). To accomplish this, the Core will
provide research consultation; access to reduced cost, specialized, research quality diagnostic and phenotypic
assessments; recruitment support; training; data management; and other aids for IDDRC investigators bridging
clinical research with basic science. The Core is engaged in advancing assessment methods for IDD research
through innovative measure development, evaluation, and dissemination. The Core also supports outreach,
biospecimen banking, and data management. In addition, the Core will participate in IDDRC Network and other
IDDRC-related multi-site clinical investigations.
 Over the past 4 years, the Core has successfully established effective procedures for support of ongoing
and new clinical IDD studies, nearly doubling the number supported during that timeframe, and has contributed
new phenotyping measurements to the field. The Core has been impactful in supporting several new studies by
early career investigators new to clinical studies. In this renewal, we are strengthening the Core by adding two
new Core Co-Investigators (Drs. Catherine Lord and Rujuta Bhatt Wilson) who bring special expertise in social,
diagnostic, behavioral, motor, and neurological assessments, IDD intervention trials, longitudinal studies, and
large-scale training on gold standard diagnostic instruments. Core support is leveraged to achieve substantial
cost efficiency, reducing individual project costs and by removing burdens of training, quality control, and
maintenance of reliability from individual studies. Core access then enables expansion of research efforts and
enhances quality of UCLA IDDRC research by establishing uniformity in diagnosis, phenotyping, and conduct of
clinical studies. Measurement development efforts, utilizing sophisticated analytics such as Item Response
Theory and machine learning, are aimed at addressing methodologic gaps that have plagued prior clinical
research efforts relating to IDDs, and foster new research by providing tools better suited to capturing clinical
manifestations of underlying biology, hence advancing clinical translation. Our training aims to build capacity for
IDD research. Our team is especially well suited for advancing assessment approaches for use in minimally
verbal individuals, and very young children at risk for IDDs, a strength of our team. Core investigators are well
known for measurement and paradigm development, lifespan studies, and studies of higher functioning subjects
across a range of IDDs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10224909
- **Project number:** 5P50HD103557-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** JAMES T. MCCRACKEN
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $191,563
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10224909

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10224909, UCLA IDDRC: Translational Core (5P50HD103557-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10224909. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*