{"id":4708,"date":"2021-07-02T13:32:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T18:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/?p=4708"},"modified":"2021-07-02T13:36:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T18:36:06","slug":"innovation-and-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/innovation-and-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Translational misconceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christopher P. Austin, Nature<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misconceptions about translation \u2014 defined as the process of turning observations in the laboratory, clinic and community into interventions that improve the health of individuals \u2014 hinder efforts to close gaps and address challenges related to the translational process. This article highlights some misconceptions with the aim of improving understanding and advancing solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.\u201d<\/em> Mark Twain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sometimes asked what my biggest surprise has been as director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), the component of the US NIH focused on the science of translation. Without hesitation, I answer \u201capperception\u201d \u2014 meaning \u2018to comprehend a new idea by assimilation with the sum of one’s previous knowledge and experience\u2019. Translational science is a new idea1<\/a><\/sup> and turns out to be challenging to assimilate with what is believed to be true by many stakeholders based on their previous experience. This difficulty with apperception is surprisingly resistant to data and substantially impedes progress in translational science that would otherwise be accelerating the development of new treatments for disease \u2014 a goal all stakeholders share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I offer here several of the most prevalent and robust misconceptions I have experienced in speaking to diverse audiences about translation, along with some ideas on causation and amelioration. I present these as one trained in, and unflinchingly supportive of, basic scientific investigation. And with apologies, I present each misconception in its purest form without subtlety or qualifications, for the purposes of exposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common misconceptions about translation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Translation does not exist<\/em><\/strong>. This is a surprisingly widely and firmly held belief, with multiple variants, including the \u2018basic discovery \u2261 intervention \u2261 health improvement\u2019 false equivalency. This seems to derive in part from well-placed respect for the wonders of fundamental science, along with widespread lack of knowledge of how interventions (drugs, devices, behavioural interventions and medical procedures) are developed, separation of the stages of translation into dozens of \u2018silos\u2019 and a paucity of individuals who have first-hand experience in more than a few of these silos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that a fundamental discovery is commonly believed to be tantamount to a marketed intervention. Furthermore, the widely used term \u2018technology transfer\u2019 encourages this notion, as it implies that a basic technology can be transferred to a commercial organization and immediately marketed without substantial further investment or risk of failure. To those with this simplistic world view, the concept of translation as a discrete stage between fundamental discovery and health improvement is confusing at best and a fiction at worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation is a \u2018thermodynamically favoured\u2019 process<\/em><\/strong>. The concept here is that translation does exist, but it occurs naturally and automatically. This is also known as the \u2018snowpack in the mountains\u2019 model, in which fundamental science is the metaphorical winter snow that, in the spring, naturally melts and runs downhill and provides the needed product, an intervention that improves human health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One source of this misconception appears to be the common statements at the end of scientific and lay publications about fundamental discoveries that note the potential for the discovery to lead to a drug or other therapeutic intervention in a few years. This must be a misconception given that the remarkable success of basic science in delivering fundamental insights in the past several decades has not led to the number of drugs or other interventions being approved increasing to a corresponding extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher P. Austin, Nature Misconceptions about translation \u2014 defined as the process of turning observations in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[39],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innovation-and-translation","tag-innovation-and-translation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4711,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4708\/revisions\/4711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4708"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.une.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}