06 Apr 2009 05:00 AM
AAAS/Science To Launch New Journal, Science Translational Medicine
The journal Science, published by the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has announced plans to launch a new journal devoted to research in translational medicine, which uses insights from basic biology to improve medical care. The journal, Science Translational Medicine, will launch in fall, 2009. (See http://www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org.)
Elias Zerhouni, M.D., Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program and former Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has accepted the position of Chief Scientific Advisor for Science Translational Medicine.
Together with the journal's Advisory Board of clinician scientists and other experts, and Editor Katrina L. Kelner, Dr. Zerhouni will set the strategic direction of the journal and work with staff to attract and publish research that represents both excellent science and significant advances for human health.
"We need to find novel and more effective ways to better understand and develop, for patients, the extraordinary advances we have made in the past few years. This is why translational medicine has to become a more rigorous and, in my view, a redefined new discipline of biomedical science, with a vibrant and focused community dedicated to basic and applied investigations of the highest scientific quality, and without artificial barriers between its constituent disciplines," Dr. Zerhouni said.
"We should never forget that the public supports our research not just for its own sake but for its promise to bring new and more effective approaches to health across the world. I am pleased by the decision of AAAS to launch this journal at this time and honored to serve as its inaugural chief scientific advisor."
What is Translational Medicine?
Often described as an effort to carry scientific knowledge "from bench to bedside," translational medicine builds on basic research advances - studies of biological processes using cell cultures, for example, or animal models - and uses them to develop new therapies or medical procedures.
Translational medicine is becoming ever-more interdisciplinary. For example, researchers need new computational approaches to deal with the large amounts of data pouring in from genomics and other fields, and as new advances in physics and materials science offer new approaches to study or diagnose medical conditions.
Science Translational Medicine is being launched to help researchers more efficiently access and apply new findings from many different fields, explained Bruce Alberts, Science's Editor-in-Chief. Specifically, the journal will serve researchers and management in academia, government, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, physician scientists, regulators, policy-makers, investors, business developers, and funding agencies.
"The new journal should help scientists and engineers work toward bigger-picture goals for improving patient care, by allowing them to better assimilate information that currently is coming at them from multiple sources," Alberts said. "Too often, information with the potential to improve human quality-of-life is available only through silo-like channels…
Elias Zerhouni, M.D., Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program and former Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has accepted the position of Chief Scientific Advisor for Science Translational Medicine.
Together with the journal's Advisory Board of clinician scientists and other experts, and Editor Katrina L. Kelner, Dr. Zerhouni will set the strategic direction of the journal and work with staff to attract and publish research that represents both excellent science and significant advances for human health.
"We need to find novel and more effective ways to better understand and develop, for patients, the extraordinary advances we have made in the past few years. This is why translational medicine has to become a more rigorous and, in my view, a redefined new discipline of biomedical science, with a vibrant and focused community dedicated to basic and applied investigations of the highest scientific quality, and without artificial barriers between its constituent disciplines," Dr. Zerhouni said.
"We should never forget that the public supports our research not just for its own sake but for its promise to bring new and more effective approaches to health across the world. I am pleased by the decision of AAAS to launch this journal at this time and honored to serve as its inaugural chief scientific advisor."
What is Translational Medicine?
Often described as an effort to carry scientific knowledge "from bench to bedside," translational medicine builds on basic research advances - studies of biological processes using cell cultures, for example, or animal models - and uses them to develop new therapies or medical procedures.
Translational medicine is becoming ever-more interdisciplinary. For example, researchers need new computational approaches to deal with the large amounts of data pouring in from genomics and other fields, and as new advances in physics and materials science offer new approaches to study or diagnose medical conditions.
Science Translational Medicine is being launched to help researchers more efficiently access and apply new findings from many different fields, explained Bruce Alberts, Science's Editor-in-Chief. Specifically, the journal will serve researchers and management in academia, government, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, physician scientists, regulators, policy-makers, investors, business developers, and funding agencies.
"The new journal should help scientists and engineers work toward bigger-picture goals for improving patient care, by allowing them to better assimilate information that currently is coming at them from multiple sources," Alberts said. "Too often, information with the potential to improve human quality-of-life is available only through silo-like channels…
