The Translational Medicine Group is a program established with the goal of accelerating the advance of new therapeutics into clinical practice. The TMG works closely with the basic science teams in the CCIB to help identify targets for new therapies. Once new compounds with sufficient activity to test in vivo have been developed, the Translational Medicine Group co-develops the pre-clinical study plan needed to provide the rationale and safety package to gain regulatory approval to enter clinical trials.

The TMG then designs, organizes, and conducts first-in-human experimental studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of these medicines. The source of new compounds for the TMG’s work is not restricted to the CCIB’s own therapeutics center, but will also include therapies originating from outside laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard and other academic centers, as well as from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

The CCIB’s lead program is an SGLT2 inhibitor for the treatment of diabetes mellitus that has been developed in conjunction with a biotech sponsor, Theracos Inc. The TMG has supervised the development of this compound from the time of selection of a pre-clinical lead candidate molecule up through current phase 3 clinical trials. In addition to the diabetes program, the TMG is collaborating with investigators both within the MGH and outside on programs targeted at the treatment of cholera, skeletal muscle wasting diseases, heart failure, and stroke.