This story appeared in the April 12, 2012, issue of Synapse, the UCSF student newspaper. Clay Johnston, MD, PhD, is Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and Associate Vice Chancellor of Reasearch at UCSF.
In your own words, what is Translational Science?
Translational Science is about getting discoveries from the laboratory, into the clinic, and then into improving the health of the population. It's where research improves health.
In what ways is Translational Medicine relevant to medical students?
For medical students, most of years 1 and 2 is really about early translational research: understanding how basic science explains health. And most of years 3 and 4 is about applying research to change clinical and community outcomes: how to help people live healthier lives and how to a keep the community healthy.
What are interesting future opportunities or trends in Translational Medicine for students to be aware of?
These are pretty exciting times. Already, we've seen translational research result in dramatic improvements in health. Now we need to figure out how to do it better, faster, and cheaper. The promise of large data—genomics, proteomics, deep clinical data from electronic health records, information on communities—is obvious. We need to be building the tools to make the research process work better. Informatics will be a critical component.
What are some potential career paths in Translational Medicine?
If you like research and you like clinical or population health, translational medicine may be a good fit. Translational Medicine spans nearly the entire research spectrum, so lots of places for research careers. Some in the field are primarily lab based while others do clinical research, and still others work in policy or community health.
What are the primary challenges for Translational Researchers?
For all researchers, the first major challenge is getting funded! This is still a big deal for translational researchers but we are fortunate to have a variety of different funding options, ranging from the NIH and CDC to foundations and industry. Since so many groups care about translational research and benefit from it, more funders are now looking for good research projects to support.
Who are some of the inspiring physician scientists working in Translational Medicine?
The list at UCSF is just too long to even begin! Even our two most recent Nobelists are now heavily focused on translational research. Elizabeth Blackburn is discovering links between telomere length, stress, and human aging. And Stan Prusiner is working on practical tests and even therapies for prion diseases. There are many more.
As the director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at UCSF, can you explain some of the priorities of CTSI on campus?
We're not like a typical research institute. First of all, everyone at UCSF is part of CTSI: every faculty member and student and staff member. Second, we're working to make others look good. We provide training, infrastructure, and services to accelerate research, but that's all behind the scenes. Third, we are focused on improving the whole research enterprise. How can we improve the culture, processes, policies, and environment for researchers at the University, so that we can all benefit sooner from research advances? That's one of the most exciting parts of the job. We have taken for granted the way academia is set up, which has left us blind to the possibilities to do things better.
What are some of the resources available at UCSF for students interested in pursuing Translational Research?
We have lots of support for students, including grants to take blocks of time to work with translational researchers—quarters up to full years. Some of our small project grants have gone to students. We've also had students help us to think through how to support research better, and some of these ideas have become funded projects.
What do you wish you had known about Translational Medicine early in your career?
Well, we didn't talk about translational medicine early in my career, but I was drawn to it from early on. I wanted to extend the thrill of improving the life of a single patient to the possibility of helping lots of patients through research. For me, I didn't want to be too distant from the ultimate health impact, so clinical research—part of the translational spectrum—was an obvious choice.
CTSI is a member of the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards network focused on accelerating research to improve health. The Institute provides resources, training, and funding for researchers at every stage, and promotes collaboration and networking through UCSF Profiles, an online tool that features 4,200+ UCSF faculty and staff, includes 99,000+ publication listings, and is visited by 30,000+ users each month.
Learn more about CTSI via UCSF.edu: UCSF Receives $112 Million to Translate Science into Cures
View Clay Johnston's complete biography here.
Examples of Translational Research at UCSF:
Applying Science to Prevent Childhood Cavities
Physician Influences Everyday Practice
Mapping the Brain to Predict Surgery Outcomes
Solutions for Neglected Diseases
How Many Lives Could a Soda Tax Save?
Preventing Sports Injuries: Science-based Video Technology Making Strides