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 OverviewBasic ScienceTranslational ResearchClinical ResearchIslet TransplantationPublications ListTraining OpportunitiesDiabetes Research LinksThe Hormone Research InstituteThe Metabolic Research Unit | Translational research Between a laboratory breakthrough and a breakthrough in the clinic, there is translational research. It is perhaps the least glamorous of all the stages of research, rarely making headlines of the local newspaper. The job of the translational researcher is to take the knowledge gained in the laboratory and lay the groundwork needed to develop a new clinical trial in humans. Often, translation research will involve animal studies designed to mimic the human situation. Such studies are generally done with the same care and scrutiny as the best-planned human clinical trials, and involve a plethora of supporting laboratory techniques that aim to determine how and why the new therapy works or fails in these models. Translational research studies may involve years of starts and stops, retooling of techniques, or subtle changes in drug doses or treatment schedules to try to estimate how safe and how effective the new treatment will be in human trials. It is a slow process that requires the inquisitive and meticulous nature of a basic researcher and the thoughtfulness and organizational wizardry of a clinical researcher. The Other key areas of our current translational research program are: |
