Translate! 2016: Faster from idea to therapy
What makes translation tick? How can science, business and politics join forces? What factors contribute to the success of translation research? Over the next two days, international experts will discuss the current challenges of translational medicine. The global symposium will take place for the second time in Berlin. Initiators are the Berlin-Brandenburg Centre for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), a cooperation between Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, and the Berlin Institute for Health Research/Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) with the scientific magazine Science Translational Medicine (STM).
Bringing scientific progress rapidly into medical application is successful translation. Promising results are transferred from basic research to clinical research and finally to clinical practice. There, they have to prove themselves, and the experience then flows back into the laboratory. So much for theory. In practice, players are always faced with challenges: Regulations and official approvals slow down the process, conflicting interests hamper trend-setting developments, academic research meets a completely different translation culture with industry. It is not always easy to transfer knowledge promptly into therapies or diagnostics.
Constructive, controversial and future-oriented, international translation researchers deal with the transfer process. Experts from the basic sciences, clinical research, start-ups and large companies come together to discuss innovative and proven strategies and design new translation models. The motto of this year's symposium: "Finding the Face in the Crowd: Translational Research in a Competitive, Global Scientific Market". Dr. Georg Schütte, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on the congress organised by BCRT, BIH and STM: "Germany has great potential to play a leading role in many aspects of translational health research. With the German Centers for Health Research and the Berlin Institute for Health Research, the German government has created structures that will enable research results to be transferred more quickly from the laboratory to medical practice - for the benefit of patients.
Successful translation is achieved when the interest groups involved work together and share their experiences. "The different goals of research scientists, clinicians and political decision-makers must converge so that a strong international research infrastructure can develop. It is also up to the individual governments to pave the regulatory way to accelerate translational research," said Prof. Dr. Georg Duda, Deputy Director of the BCRT, at the event. In addition to best-practice examples such as clinical research units as translation platforms, the forum will focus on quality standards in research and the effective use of research resources. "The Congress Translate! 2016, with its renowned international circle of participants and its programme, will provide important contributions to discussion and impetus for the further development of translational research, both in Germany and internationally," said State Secretary Schütte.
Source: Charité – Universitätsmedizin: http://www.charite.de/
Contact
Prof. Dr. Georg N. Duda
Stellvertretender Direktor des Berlin-Brandenburger Centrums für Regenerative Therapien (BCRT)
Direktor Julius Wolff Institut
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
E-Mail: Georg.Duda(at)charite.de
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