Translational medicine: From translational research to targeted therapy and personalized medicine / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Despite of tremendous progresses made in the genomics, stem cell technology, and microelectronics, challenges remain for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases including cancer. Thus the conception of "translational medicine" appeared and it is generally believed that translational researches should be intensified. Translational researches not only include the application of new methods and advanced technologies, but also emphasize the raise of problems from clinical practice and study and solve them for diagnosis and treatment. Another important aspect of translational medicine is personalized treatment of diseases, i.e., using targeted drugs against specific molecular changes in individual patient. Although there are only a handful of examples for targeted therapy, we believe that, with the deeper understanding of the mechanisms of more diseases, discovery of more biomarkers and diagnostic methods, and development of more targeted drugs, personalized therapy will become popular in clinic in the future.