Translational research is a major issue of CECAD, to transfer key findings from basic biological research via human studies to the patients and then into clinical practice and to the community. CECAD established Research Platform B (RP-B) “Translational research in age-associated diseases” to provide extensive specialized expertise on clinical trial and cohort design along with pertaining infrastructure and clinically oriented training activities to enable CECAD PIs and its faculty to turn basic research into translational projects.

All these studies are performed according to local ethics committee regulations and internationally accepted quality standards (ICH-GCP, ISO 14155) and are in compliance with national and international legislation. They are supervised by the Clinical Trials Center Cologne (CTCC) and the CECAD Clinical Study Design Lab, which have established quality-relevant processes to ensure the safety of study participants, compliance with guidelines and legal requirements, and the highest possible sample and data integration and usage. In translational projects, where patient material or personalized medical applications are applied, approval by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine is requested and patient data anonymized (Declaration of Helsinki).

Our goals are to continue providing an optimal environment for pilot trials, enhance training activities, extend cohort activities, harmonize biosampling, integrate data for aging studies, and create advanced adaptive platform trial designs for long-term clinical trials in aging-associated diseases.