Opportunities in translational medicine

The goals of translational medicine in academia and industry are complementary. While most spending by the commercial sector funds clinical investigations that aim to validate the effectiveness of known entities, researchers in academia tend to focus on the identification of novel and creative solutions. Thus, a balanced approach that encourages partnership between these entities, with small biotechnology enterprises bridging the gap, could establish a positive feedback loop in which benefits in the clinic fuel advances in academia, which in turn lead to the development of new products in industry.

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, which marked the advent of rapid, automated (high-throughput) biotechnology and expedited the testing of concepts encompassing thousands of variables at once, represented one of the major scientific revolutions of the modern era. It made possible the investigation of humans individually across the heterogeneity of their genetic backgrounds and their diseases. Accompanying advances in bioinformatics led to unprecedented computational power, resulting in large databases and comprehensive data analyses. Led by these technological advances, which expedited the efficiency of the learning process, several other disciplines emerged that helped increase scientists’ understanding of human physiopathology in the context of the environment. Examples include nutrigenomics, which studies the effects of foods on gene expression, and the study of the human microbiome, which involves the analysis of interactions between commensal flora and the human organism. The latter revealed that, in certain genetic backgrounds, alteration of the intestinal flora can affect the responsiveness of cancer to standard treatment through modulation of the immune response. Such studies demonstrate how the natural history of complex human diseases and their responsiveness to treatment are multifactorial phenomena, affected by interactions between genetically determined characteristics of each person, which in turn affect the person’s interaction with environmental factors. Achievements in linking the genetics of individuals to their predisposition to disease and responsiveness to treatment are expected to lead to cost-efficient approaches to therapeutic intervention. Following such a patient-specific road map is referred to as “personalized medicine.”