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Translational science award aims to speed discoveries from bench to bedside
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When writing stories about new research, I always try to ask the critical question: “Why should I care?” The basis for this question is not as selfish as it seems. The reasoning behind it actually begs to know: “How will this science help humanity?”
That’s a tough question for some researchers to answer. Scientists who conduct basic science may spend years investigating perhaps only one aspect of a larger order of processes. The bulk of articles in scientific journals can be pretty theoretical sometimes. It’s a challenge for the science writer to make certain research news relevant to the “what’s-in-it-for-me” reader.
The scientific process dictates that new findings must be subjected to rigorous and lengthy peer review and validation. Therefore, it can take a frustratingly long time for a promising concept developed in a lab to finally make its way into a device or product that can be useful to people. Sometimes this never happens.
To improve this situation, we need ways to foster translational research—or careers where scientists work alongside clinicians to conduct their experiments in such as way as to shorten the time to market. Such a pathway already exists. In 2006, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) set up a support system for a new generation of scientists who will be able to call themselves translational researchers. The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, lead by NIH’s National Center for Research Resources, created a consortium of 39 medical research centers in 23 states and provided an annual funding commitment of $500 million by 2012. Regionally, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Pittsburgh are members of the CTSA consortium.
The CTSA supports many aspects of cross- divisional scientific endeavors, including many areas that you might not consider to be part of the scientific process—and that is because they aren’t. These areas include funding innovative science education programs and providing start-up money for small businesses. The CTSA program wants to develop researchers that not only know how to run a lab, but they want people who can successfully teach others and write a business plan, too.
Helpful innovations have come from CTSA program consortium members. Most recently, Indiana University School of Medicine set up a database of medical and laboratory results that is accessible by all member institutions. Researchers can use this online patient medical information, regardless of where they are located or what software they are using to access it.
But in order for translational research to really make progress, there also needs to be an infusion of scientists and clinicians willing to work this way--collaboratively and across disciplines.
But in order for translational research to really make progress, there also needs to be an infusion of scientists and clinicians willing to work this way--collaboratively and across disciplines.
An editorial in the May 15, 2009 issue of the journal Science emphasizes this important aspect. The authors of the editorial state that this new breed of scientist: “must understand the processes by which discoveries turn into therapies, as well as the evolving role of private industry. They must navigate the regulatory environment surrounding human-subjects research, work in teams and share the rewards of their work, and defer financial rewards while spending years in extra training to gain this knowledge.”
The writers of the editorial present a tough challenge, considering that it is commencement time and that the Baltimore area colleges and universities alone will be graduating thousands of newly trained scientists, engineers, and physicians. Is it fair to ask these recent graduates, who no doubt have student loans to consider, to “defer financial rewards while spending years in extra training” to become the translational researchers that the world needs? If our attitude remains that an ultimate goal of scientific investigation is to serve the good of humanity, then the answer would have to be “yes.”
To support this effort and to help these new graduates find jobs that will foster translational research, Science magazine has launched the Clinical and Translational Science Network. This web site, part of the Science Careers section of the journal, offers news and views about training, careers and other items of interest related to clinical and translational science.
The potential benefits of translational research are obvious. What a wonder it would be to talk to a scientist and have him or her say, without hesitation, that their research can be quickly translated into the solution to a medical problem or condition. I realize it will take time for some of our new graduates to begin to think in these terms, but I know many of them are well on their way.
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