Lost in Translation? Not!
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LETTER
Lost in Translation? Not! Tavarekere N. Nagaraja & Robert A. Knight
Received: 24 February 2011 / Revised: 11 May 2011 / Accepted: 11 May 2011 / Published online: 27 May 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Translation—To render or convert into another language; change into a different substance, form or appearance (from Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary) Translational research is deservedly getting more attention now. In the last 3 years, several new journals that specifically deal with this branch of research have begun publishing: for instance American Journal of Translational Research (http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.desoto.hfhs.org:2048/pmc/articles/ PMC2776285/pdf/ajtr0001-i.pdf) and Science Translational Medicine (http://stm.sciencemag.org/). These two journals deal with several aspects of translational research covering all branches of medicine. Stroke, the single largest cause of human disability, has just o n e F o o d & D r u g Administration-approved drug therapy so far, and much work remains to be done to understand the disease process. Therefore, the introduction of a new journal dedicated to translational stroke research is timely and welcome. Translational Stroke Research (TSR) “emphasizes on novel approaches to help translate the scientific discoveries from basic stroke research into the development of new strategies for the prevention, assessment, treatment, and enhancement of central nervous system repair after stroke T. N. Nagaraja Department of Anesthesiology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI, USA R. A. Knight Department Neurology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI, USA T. N. Nagaraja (*) Department of Anesthesiology, Henry Ford Health System, 2799 West Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48202, USA e-mail: [email protected]
and other forms of neurotrauma” (http://www.springer.com/ biomed/neuroscience/journal/12975). This definition of translational research is widely accepted in the basic biomedical research community which strives to see the results from its tremendous research efforts applied toward alleviating human suffering, the so-called bench to bedside approach. Understanding the fundamental life processes and unraveling their complexity and interdependency is generally considered a great reward in itself, although the application of such knowledge to real-time human conditions adds an additional dimension of gratification and justifiability, the latter aspect being particularly important in bringing such information to the attention of the public and for coaxing increased federal funding. It is important, therefore, to ensure that we all are on the same page with the definition of “translational research.” An examination of existing definitions provides some interesting insight. The purpose of the Translational Research Interest Group of the National Institutes of Health is “to bring together physician scientists and basic research scientists to discuss efficient ways of accelerating the application of biomedical discoveries to clinical practice, ultimately for the benef
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