WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue closed out the calendar year on a high-note by defeating rival Indiana 76-66 at Mackey Arena on Thursday.

This game was the only match-up scheduled between the Boilermakers and the Hoosiers this season, and was Purdue’s fourth win in the last five games. The loss was Indiana’s second in its last six games. Purdue is now 7-6 for the year and 2-1 in the Big Ten, while Indiana fell to 8-5 and 1-1 in the conference.

Brittany Rayburn scored a game-high 22 points against the archrival Hoosiers.

The Boilermakers overcame a three-point halftime deficit by outscoring the Hoosiers 41 to 28 in the second half. Purdue shot 43 percent for the field after the break, including 4 of 9 from behind the three-point line, while limiting IU to just 8 of 30 shooting (27 percent).

The second half defensive effort by Purdue cooled off a red-hot Hoosier squad that shot 48 percent from the field in the first half to take a 38-35 lead into halftime.

The Boilers forced Indiana into a season-high 24 turnovers in the game and took advantage with 21 points as a direct result. Three days after committing only 15 giveaways to Minnesota, the Boilermakers turned the ball over a season-low 10 times to Hoosiers on Thursday.

Individually, sophomore Brittany Rayburn led all scorers with 22 points on 7 of 13 shooting. She finished the game with four of Purdue’s season high nine three-pointers, and the effort marked her sixth contest of the season with 20 or more points. Rayburn scored Purdue’s first 11 points of the game.

Sophomore Chelsea Jones chipped in with Purdue’s third double-double of the season, finishing with a career-high 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Fort Smith, Ark., native led the second half surge with with 12 points on three of five shooting from the field and making six of eight free throws in the final 20 minutes.

Senior Jodi Howell added 11 points, including three three-pointers, classmate FahKara Malone finished with nine points, seven assists, three steals and just one turnover in 34 minutes and freshman Sam Ostarello had six points and eight rebounds for the Boilers in the win.

Jori Davis and Aulani Sinclair each finished with 16 points in the losing effort for the Hoosiers.

Purdue will take a break from league play when it hosts third-ranked Notre Dame on January 4. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Mackey Arena and the game will be shown live on ESPN2.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A federal award to fund the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute validates Indiana’s position as a biomedical research leader, and citizens across Indiana and beyond will benefit, say Hoosier life sciences leaders.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year grant of $25 million to the IU School of Medicine to fund Indiana CTSI activities at Indiana and Purdue Universities. The NIH created the clinical and translational awards program as a high priority effort to improve the process by which the laboratory discoveries of basic science are transformed into new medical treatments and products – a process called translational research.

Officials at the NIH said the Indiana CTSI is one of the most broadly collaborative of the more than two dozen such programs it has funded to date, with community partners including Clarian Health, Eli Lilly and Co., BioCrossroads, Cook Group, Roche, Wellpoint, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the Indiana Department of Health and the Marion County Health Department.

“The institute harnesses all of Indiana’s major life sciences research centers into a commonly focused enterprise that will give Indiana’s research scientists many new advantages in finding ways to do their work more effectively and efficiently,” said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. “Over the long term, this will have an enormously positive impact on the state and will make laboratories at both IU and Purdue far more competitive for the major research awards of the future.”

“This partnership creates the only national clinical and translational sciences institute that’s a statewide research laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health acknowledged that,” said France A. Córdova, president of Purdue. “This unique structure means Purdue and Indiana university researchers can address the human health needs of the entire state, especially those in our more rural communities.”

One key to the success of the Indiana CTSI will be its ability to go beyond translating scientific discoveries to treatments and standard health care practices, said Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at IU School of Medicine and IU assistant vice president for life sciences, who has been named director of the Indiana CTSI.

“We will build systems that facilitate all levels of research and provide community feedback to researchers. This will enable the researchers to improve and refine the conduct of their science and improve care of their patients. We call it the “translational circle,’ ” Dr. Shekhar said.

Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, has been named deputy director of the CTSI at Purdue. Bennett Bertenthal, Ph.D., dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, has been named deputy director for the IU Bloomington campus.

D. Craig Brater, M.D., vice president for life sciences of IU and dean of the IU School of Medicine, noted that the institute represents the future of biomedical research.

“The health issues facing us are enormous, the science is complex, and resources must be used carefully. Just as the emphasis on translational science is of vital importance, so are broad-based partnerships and collaborations keys to our success in Indiana. Both are epitomized by the CTSI,” Dr. Brater said.

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