The CERT is structured as a free-standing Center within the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The CERT reports to the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, through the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. This model, successfully used at Vanderbilt for multi-disciplinary collaborations, has several tangible advantages, including increased institutional visibility for the core mission of the CERT, institutional financial support, increased priority in institutional decisions related to issues such as space, access to private funding or start-up funding for new ventures, and facilitation of cross-departmental or cross-school collaborations. The CERT also reports to the CERTs National Steering Committee.

The CERT includes

• CERT investigators, who conduct the projects of the CERT
• CERT cores, which provide infrastructure support and discipline-specific expertise to the investigators
• CERT partners, several organizations with a similar mission/vision that work with the CERT to improve therapeutics, as well as other institutional and extra-institutional resources
• CERT databases, which provide the infrastructure that allows us to carry out our mission in a cost-effective manner