Making a research discovery in the laboratory that could be of therapeutic use is exciting. Taking that discovery forward to benefit patients is vital, but can be complicated. The process of turning medical research discoveries into clinically available therapies is known as "translational" medicine.

The University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center has created a new center to help investigators get innovative therapies that are identified through basic research into clinical trials more quickly. The new Center for Translational Medicine is directed by Bruce Blazar, M.D., and co-directed by John E. Wagner, M.D., both members of the Cancer Center.

The idea for the center came in part from the Academic Health Center's desire to improve the pathway for moving studies from the laboratory to the clinic. "In many instances it became cumbersome and sometimes intimidating for researchers to go through the whole process," says Blazar.

According to Wagner, the transplant biology and therapy research group in the Cancer Center had developed a successful "pipeline" process for getting their promising laboratory findings, most often for treating hematological malignancies, into clinic testing. "But that pipeline wasn't really available to others," Wagner says.

With the creation of the new Center for Translational Medicine, researchers throughout the Cancer Center and the entire Academic Health Center can benefit from such expertise to help move therapies forward into phase I clinical trials, the first stage of testing new treatments in humans.

The Center for Translational Medicine provides researchers with services and resources to speed or simplify the translational process. It also identifies, evaluates, and nurtures potential breakthrough therapies through the guidance of a scientific advisory board drawn from throughout the Academic Health Center. External entities, including research organizations, industry, legislators, and foundations, can take advantage of the center's resources or support promising research endeavors.

Blazar credits the Academic Health Center for supporting the creation of the Center for Translational Medicine: "It is really taking a visionary approach in addressing some of the limitations to translational therapy by creating a center. This resource really does not exist as such in any place I've visited or contacted."

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This story was originally published in the University of Minnesota Cancer Center 2007 Annual Report.