Open AccessSuccessfully Accelerating Translational Research at an Academic Medical Center: The University of Michigan‐Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program
Author(s) -
Pienta Kenneth J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
clinical and translational science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.303
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1752-8062
pISSN - 1752-8054
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2010.00248.x
Subject(s) - translational science , translational research , translational medicine , bench to bedside , medical research , general partnership , foundation (evidence) , medicine , basic research , engineering ethics , bridging (networking) , intellectual property , business , public relations , political science , computer science , engineering , library science , pathology , medical physics , computer security , law , finance
Translational research encompasses the effective movement of new knowledge and discoveries into new approaches for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. There are many roadblocks to successful bench to bedside research, but few have received as much recent attention as the “valley of death.” The valley of death refers to the lack of funding and support for research that moves basic science discoveries into diagnostics, devices, and treatments in humans, and is ascribed to be the result of companies unwilling to fund research development that may not result in a drug or device that will be utilized in the clinic and conversely, the fact that researchers have no access to the funding needed to carry out preclinical and early clinical development to demonstrate potential efficacy in humans. The valley of death also exists because bridging the translational gap is dependent on successfully managing an additional four risks: scientific, intellectual property, market, and regulatory. The University of Michigan (UM) has partnered with the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation (CF) to create a model providing an infrastructure to overcome these risks. This model is easily adoptable to other academic medical centers (AMCs). Clin Trans Sci 2010; Volume 3: 316–318