Translational research: Two way traffic

摘要

You may not yet be familiar with the term translational research, but there will be no escaping the explosion of interest in this trend in the near future (Woolf, 2008; Thomas, 2009; Pincus, 2009; Bluher and Mantzoros, 2009). The term implies the ways in which what emerges from basic research, in laboratory settings ("the bench"), becomes clinically usable ("the bedside"). Translational Research has become a priority for major organisations such as The National Institutes for Health (NIH), which in 2006 initiated the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, as well as the formation of number of academic centres to promote these concepts.