A highly competitive National Institutes of Health grant designed to accelerate the pace of moving basic science from the laboratory to the patient will give the Scripps Translational Science Institute access to $20 million over five years.

Scripps became the fourth research institute in the state to receive the prestigious NIH award, known as the Clinical and Translational Science Award, or CTSA, and the lone nonprofit. Altogether, 14 academic centers in 11 states received a total of $533 million over five years.

Scripps Translational Science Institute, a collaborative effort with The Scripps Research Institute and Scripps Health, was established to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical trials.

Researchers there work to identify genes that underlie a person’s susceptibility to certain diseases and conduct clinical research in the area.

Other participants include J. Craig Venter Institute, The Neurosciences Institute, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, San Diego Supercomputer Center, The Salk Institute, San Diego State University and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps institute, said the money will help fund research that leads to new therapies for treating disease, the hiring of five or six ancillary clinical researchers, advanced training initiatives for young researchers and scientists worldwide and community outreach and education initiatives involving diabetes and obesity.

“It’s really unprecedented for this region to bring so many different groups together and have this large infrastructure grant,” Topol said.

A portion of the money will go toward a pre-existing diabetes education program, known as Project Dulce, tailored to underserved, mostly Hispanic communities. La Jolla-based Whittier Institute for Diabetes and San Diego State University have partnered on the project.

Additional money will allow the program to conduct genetic testing in certain patient populations, which could lead to greater understanding of gene-related predispositions for diabetes. It will also allow for the training of physicians interested in scientific endeavors.

“It’s a great opportunity to expand what we’re doing to make progress and hopefully provide more solutions to the community,” said Dr. Athena Philis-Tsimikas, executive director and chief medical officer of the Whittier Institute.

The consortium created by CTSA members began in 2006 with 12 members, added another 12 in September and 14 more during the most recent round. The group aims to have 60 members with access to $500 million a year in funding by 2012.

UC Davis, UC San Francisco and Stanford have qualified to receive grant money through the program in the past, and Stanford received additional grant money during the latest round of funding.

Recipients of the most recent grant also include Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Boston University, Harvard University, Indiana University School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Tufts University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Colorado Denver, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and University of Utah.