Commentary

Lost in Translation: Obstacles to Translational Medicine

Stacey P Mankoff¹ , Christian Brander² , Soldano Ferrone³ and Francesco M Marincola⁴

¹  Pharmaceutical Division, International Quality & Productivity Center, New York, NY

²  Partners AIDS Research Center, Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA

³  Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY

⁴  Immunogenetics Section, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Translational Medicine 2004, 2:14doi:10.1186/1479-5876-2-14

Published:	18 May 2004

Abstract

When we launched the Journal of Translational Medicine a few months ago, we were interested primarily in exploring scientific consideration of this discipline. However, as editors of JTM, we have been contacted almost daily to discuss the problems faced by scientists and clinicians around the world who are challenging the traditional boundaries of science and medicine. Through these conversations, we have learned that translational medicine is in fact "lost in translation," inspiring much angst, many promises and some Federal appropriations. However, little has been done to substantively promote this important field. Authoritative reviews on the subject are available to the interested reader [1-7]. In this article, we will address JTM's "constituency" to report what we've learned about the obstacles to translational medicine from the myriad of phone conversations and e-mail interactions.