Molecular medicine: trendy title or new reality?

For years, we molecular biologists have been claiming in our grant proposals that the outcome of our research will have an impact on medicine. This has been almost true—a white lie. Knowing how a cell responds to an external stimulus is certainly important for anybody wishing to cure a disease in which that stimulus has a role. But in fact, our work usually stops at least one step before the reality of the clinic. Our primary interest is in the generation of new knowledge, and we believe that this knowledge will then inevitably create other, more palpable benefits.However, as the cost of research increases, we are aware that we have to explain more explicitly why we should get more money—what will be the payback for society? The slightly circuitous argumentation outlined above is not fully convincing, and it is indeed missing out on a new reality. The first phase of biomedical and biotechnological research might have been better called ‘molecules for medicine’. But a real paradigm shift is taking place to integrate research in molecular biology and the medical communities. In fact, …