Principles of Translational Science

What is Translational Science? Heading link

Translational science is improving the process: Understanding what's similar across diseases to help develop multiple treatments at a time, Developing models that better predict a person's reaction to a treatment, enhancing the design and conduct of clinical trials so the results more accurately reflect the patient population.

The National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) at NIH defines:

  • Translation’ as the process of turning observations in the laboratory, clinic and community into interventions that improve the health of individuals and communities – from diagnostics, preventions, and treatments to medical procedures and behavioral changes.
  • Translational research’ as the endeavor to traverse a particular step of the translational process for a particular target or disease.
  • Translational science’ is the field of investigation focused on understanding the scientific and operational principles underlying each step of the translational process.

Translational science is “disease universal” because it focuses on the scientific and operational bottlenecks that are common to translational research for most or all diseases. These obstacles impede and prolong the process of identifying effective new treatments.

Translational science projects focus on (1) overcoming roadblocks to enhance the efficiency and speed translational research, and (2) the generalizability of solutions across a range of diseases and conditions.

Learn more about TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE

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