Clinical translation
Clinical Translational Sciences Group
Christof von Kalle
Our research focuses on patient involvement, rare diseases, cancer and digitalization.
Overview
The Clinical Translational Sciences group of BIH@Charité focuses on transforming clinical research into an innovative, interconnected, digitalized discipline that is data-driven and patient-centred at the same time. By fostering collaboration, improving data access, and advocating for supportive legal frameworks, we are working towards a future where medical research translates more rapidly into tangible health benefits, especially for patients facing rare and complex conditions.
Networking
To strengthen clinical research, we engage in close collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including policymakers, healthcare professionals, researchers, industry partners, and patient representatives. This allows us to incorporate diverse perspectives, create synergies across different sectors, and foster innovation as well as efficiency. Moreover, we organise expert workshops and participate in various events that influence translational research strategies to address challenges and explore novel solutions. That way, we can identify research needs, elaborate relevant solutions, and strengthen the collaboration between clinical research and practice in a sustainable manner.
Patient Centricity
Recognising that the ethical use of data is an essential component of patient protection and critical to improving health outcomes, we strongly advocate for a modern, patient-centred approach to data. This commitment is put into practice in initiatives like the DataBox project, which empowers patients by allowing them to retain control over their own medical information while contributing to clinical research.
Rare Diseases
Acknowledging the unique challenges posed by rare diseases, we are developing and implementing strategies that facilitate the advancement of modern therapies. Our involvement in the National Strategy for Gene and Cell Therapy (GCT) and relevant legislative initiatives aims to create a regulatory environment that accelerates research and improves patient care for patients with rare conditions.
Cancer Care
Guided by our commitment to advancing cancer care, we are participating in the Charité Cancer Medicine 2030+ strategy. As part of this initiative, we aim at improving the patient journey, enhancing data availability and usage, and accelerating technology transfer as well as the translation of research into practice. Furthermore, we are involved in establishing the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Berlin to conduct academically driven, clinical-translational cancer research on the highest international level. Our work also includes the coordination of the NCT IT infrastructure development at Charité.
Innovation
Leveraging advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, our efforts are concentrated on developing streamlined processes and digital tools to support the research lifecycle. Our goal is to make clinical trials as well as the use of medical data more efficient and sustainable. With our key areas Trial Prototyping, Data Curation, Broad Consent and Patient Involvement, we systematically promote innovation that may shape the future of clinical research.
Projects
To meet the needs of both clinicians and scientists at Charité/BIH on the one hand, and the patients on the other hand, our working group is active in various projects focused on advancing translational medicine. These projects range from the development of specific tools to support and facilitate clinical translational research to the implementation of data-based technologies that may help foster clinical translation as well as patient treatment and patient engagement.