Translational Research in its current form was driven into existence in 2000 when Andrew Balas, MD published a book chapter stating that it takes 17 years to go from bench to bedside. The next year an article was published on the subject and by 2005 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) started the Clinical and Translational Science Awards which was the largest grant programme in the NIH portfolio [Citation1]. This led to the creation of the National Center for Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the NIH.
The systematic translation of evidence-based research findings, tools, and information into practice is critical to improving the quality of our nation's health. This article by Sussman et al. from 2006 concluded that translational research is an important area to continue to pursue requiring long-term collaborative commitment among researchers and practitioners [Citation2]. In 2007, Lerman et al. showed how translational research can improve drug development for nicotine dependence [Citation3]. In 2011, Moore et al. defined a rigorous definition of pilot studies in translational research [Citation4]. Also in 2011, Freeman and Dervan stated that it takes about 15 years to go from bench to bedside (11–16 years) [Citation5]. In 2017, Ramsey et al. presented a cogent argument for academic, foundation and industry collaborations to speed drug development in the use cases of cystic fibrosis, multiple myeloma and type I diabetes mellitus [Citation6]. We believe that this improvement is due to translational research results which led to improvement in recruitment to clinical trials. Our goal should be to cut this time in half by 2030 to 8.5 years. Given typical clinical trial timeframes and tech transfer timelines, we believe this is achievable with consistent focus on translational science and translational research methods.
Journal of Translational Research is an Open Access Journal that welcomes submissions of all articles that report scientific discoveries that can translate into the improvement of clinical medicine, clinical care and human health, well-being and longevity. This journal will report on all aspects of translational research, including articles aimed at understanding and improving translational science.
Translational research is any research designed to take basic science results and move them toward or into clinical practice, as well as research which utilises clinical observations as inspiration to design new basic science experiments. This fundamental area of science is a critical part of how we measure value for our research expenditures globally. In the end, we want to publish science that aims to bring more treatments to more people more rapidly.
The journal will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to disseminating the latest research and support the fastest possible transfer of knowledge to the relevant communities. There is a real need to reduce the time it takes to go from bench to bedside. The public, governments, and funding bodies are demanding a wider understanding of the research enterprise that incorporates the entire journey from basic science to clinical practice and takes clinical observations and uses them to drive new basic hypotheses. This journal will set the tone for progress in translational research.
At the outset of the Journal of Translational Research, we want to define a few terms which in turn define the sections of the journal. Translational Science denotes the science behind the conduct of the translational research. Translational Science aims to develop empirically driven, best practices that increase the speed at which fundamental discoveries move from ‘bench to bedside’. Translational Science principles are designed to be applicable to a broad range of medical disorders, and to facilitate the scale at which translation to the clinical trenches occurs. As such, Translational Science can include a wide range of investigation types. Examples could include developing, evaluating, and applying data harmonisation techniques to establish data lakes that link multiple learning health systems to study any number of medical disorders. Translational Science studies could facilitate establishing a system that provides access to vetted tools for designing studies or designing a robust system for reproducing findings from clinical trials prior to dissemination. Translational science can help develop systematic approaches to back-translate observations from the clinic and community settings, to guide pre-clinical hypotheses and further pre-clinical research. This section will look to address strategies for doing research that speed up our ability to translate new discoveries into safe and effective treatments for patients as soon as possible.
Translational research includes the need for Implementation Science that addresses the gap between research and practice to accelerate the process of ensuring what we know works gets delivered into real-world settings without delay. Research in this section of the journal will study the factors and strategies that lead to the successful implementation of evidence-based discovery integration within specific research and care settings and will help to bridge the research gap that exists between proven research and implementation into practice and policy.
Not infrequently, Translational research makes use of Translational Informatics that provides methods and tools that enables researchers to translate pre-clinical research into the clinic more rapidly. This includes software systems implementation that assists with sample and study management to take traditionally separate data sets and disciplines and interrogate that data in a holistic manner that improves our ability to get safe and effective treatments to the correct patients. This also includes post-marketing surveillance of new treatments for new side effects or other important information regarding the broader use of any particular treatment or therapy.
New tools and methods yield novel Clinical Trial Study Designs, which will report on new methods of designing clinical trials for use in translational research. An example of this is using real-world evidence to conduct distributed recruitment and data collection for a randomised prospective controlled trial. Submissions in this section will utilise new techniques of designing and validating clinical trials for translational research, including synthetic trials and methods for speeding drug development, including in silica methods. This section will also publish trials that employ real-world evidence which is increasingly being accepted by national regulatory bodies.
As we move Translational Research forwards, we need novel Basic Science Methods that include new methods of conducting basic science that will empower translational researchers. As we rethink the methods we use in basic science, we need studies that report new methods that will engage partners in clinical trials and in implementation science to be more ready to take important basic science discoveries and rapidly translate them, where supported by best evidence, into safe and effective therapies for patients. This section within the journal will report on those new methods and will assist in speeding up the process of translating research from the bench to the bedside and back again. We also would be pleased to consider articles that help to decrease the current regulatory burden. This also can include novel genomic data analysis methods and new laboratory based methodologies.
In order to be successful with our translational research programme we need effective Community Engagement that includes ways of engaging communities, including those that are under-represented in research studies, bringing them into the research ecosystem. The goal is that our cohorts closely resemble the population on which a therapy will eventually be used. The section considers how to engage those communities impacted by translational research and ensure that new translational research reaches community medicine and those that report population outcomes. We believe that this will assist us with adoption of new treatments and therefore improved clinical outcomes.
Conclusions
The Journal of Translational Research will publish important peer-reviewed original research and review articles in order to move translational research forward in direct support of our global public health. The journal's editorial board and its section editors are committed to publishing the very highest quality manuscripts and through Open Access dissemination get them to the research community to help inform future research and clinical practice. We hope to contribute to the literature towards expediting bringing safe and effective treatments to more patients more rapidly.
References
- Balas EA, Boren SA. Managing clinical knowledge for health care improvement. Yearb Med Inform. 2000;9(01):65–70.
- Sussman S, Valente TW, Rohrbach LA, et al. Translation in the health professions: converting science into action. Eval Health Prof. 2006 Mar;29(1):7–32. doi: 10.1177/0163278705284441.
- Lerman C, LeSage MG, Perkins KA, et al. Translational research in medication development for nicotine dependence. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2007 Sep;6(9):746–62. doi: 10.1038/nrd2361.
- Moore CG, Carter RE, Nietert PJ, et al. Recommendations for planning pilot studies in clinical and translational research. Clin Transl Sci. 2011 Oct;4(5):332–7. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00347.x.
- Freeman MW, Dervan AP. The path from bench to bedside: considerations before starting the journey. J Investig Med. 2011 Jun;59(5):746–51. doi: 10.2310/JIM.0b013e3182160d70.
- Ramsey BW, Nepom GT, Lonial S. Academic, foundation, and industry collaboration in finding new therapies. N Engl J Med. 2017 May 4;376(18):1762–1769. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1612575.