Under the Hood: The Scientific Leadership, Clinical Operations, Statistical and Data Management, and Laboratory Centers of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group

Developing and implementing the scientific agenda of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) by soliciting input and proposals, transforming concepts into clinical trials, conducting those trials, and translating trial data analyses into actionable information for infectious disease clinical practice is the collective role of the Scientific Leadership Center, Clinical Operations Center, Statistical and Data Management Center, and Laboratory Center of the ARLG. These activities include shepherding concept proposal applications through peer review; identifying, qualifying, training, and overseeing clinical trials sites; recommending, developing, performing, and evaluating laboratory assays in support of clinical trials; and designing and performing data collection and statistical analyses. This article describes key components involved in realizing the ARLG scientific agenda through the activities of the ARLG centers.

Transforming Concepts Into Clinical Trials and Creating a Multisite Network: The Leadership and Operations Center of the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group

The Leadership and Operations Center (LOC) is responsible for facilitating, coordinating, and implementing the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) scientific agenda by engaging thought leaders; soliciting research proposals; and developing the processes, tools, and infrastructure required to operationalize studies and create and sustain the ARLG network. These efforts are ongoing as new projects are developed and the network expands and grows to address the ever-changing priorities in antibacterial resistance. This article describes the innovations, accomplishments, and opportunities of the LOC since the inception of the ARLG in 2013.

Recent innovations in the USA National Cancer Institute-sponsored investigator initiated Phase I and II anticancer drug development

Exciting recent advancements in deep-sequencing technology have enabled a rapid and cost-effective molecular characterization of patient-derived tumor samples. Incorporating these innovative diagnostic technologies into early clinical trials could significantly propel implementation of precision medicine by identifying genetic markers predictive of sensitivity to agents. It may also markedly accelerate drug development and subsequent regulatory approval of novel agents. Particularly noteworthy, a high-response rate in a Phase II trial involving a biomarker-enriched patient cohort could result in a regulatory treatment approval in rare histologies, which otherwise would not be a candidate for a large randomized clinical trial. Furthermore, even if a trial does not meet its statistical endpoint, tumors from a few responders should be molecularly characterized as part of the new biomarker-mining processes. In order to accommodate patient screening and accelerate the accrual process, institutions conducting early clinical trials need to be a part of a multi-institution clinical trials network. Future clinical trial design will incorporate new biomarkers discovered by a 'phenotype-to-genotype' effort with an appropriate statistical design. To help advance such changes, the National Cancer Institute has recently reformed the existing early phase clinical trials network. A new clinical trial network, the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ET-CTN), was begun and, in addition to its pre-existing infrastructure, an up-to-date clinical trial registration system, clinical trial monitoring system including electronic database and a central Institutional Review Board were formed. Ultimately, these reforms support identifying the most appropriate therapy for each tumor type by incorporating state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic tools into early clinical trials.

The Appalachian Tri-State Node Experiences with the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-sponsored Clinical Trial Network (CTN) recently celebrated 10 years of conducting "real world" research into the treatment of addiction. This article reviews the history and results of the most recent CTN studies and describes the experiences of one of the 13 participating research affiliates, the Appalachian Tri-State (ATS) Node. We discuss our "bidirectional" collaboration with multiple community treatment programs (CTPs) on research and dissemination activities and include their experiences as a member of our ATS Node.Results of CTN clinical trials have found unexpectedly that treatment as usual (TAU) is often almost as good as evidence-based interventions such as Motivational Interviewing (MI), possibly due to the difficulty in implementing evidence-based practices most effectively among divergent treatment sites and heterogeneous clinical populations. Some expected findings from the reviewed research are that severity of addiction and comorbidity moderate treatment outcomes and must be accounted for in future CTN-sponsored studies. Notwithstanding these results, much has been learned and recommendations are suggested for changes in CTN research designs that will address methodological limitations and increase treatment effectiveness in future CTN studies.