Advancing translational science education

Abstract

In this communication, the authors offer considerations for how the scientific community can capitalize on decades of translational science advances and experiential knowledge to develop new education opportunities for a diverse and highly skilled translational science workforce. Continued advancement of the field of translational science will require new education approaches that distill key concepts in translational science from past and ongoing research initiatives and teach this foundational knowledge to current and future translational scientists. These key concepts include generalizable scientific and operational principles to guide translational science, as well as evidence-informed practices. Inspired by this approach, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has developed an initial set of guiding principles for translational science generated via case studies of multiple highly successful translational science initiatives, and is now teaching them via new education activities that aim to reach a broad scientific audience interested in translational science. Our goal with this review is to prompt continued conversation with the translational science community regarding capitalizing on our collective translational science knowledge to advance core content for translational science education and disseminating this content to a broad range of scientific audiences.

FIGURE 1

Summary graphic of translational science principles with brief titles and descriptions.

FIGURE 2

This figure uses the drug discovery and development pathway (part 1) to illustrate that while there may be numerous candidates identified at the early stages of research, very few of these will successfully traverse the translational process. In part 2 of the figure there are scientific and operational bottlenecks that slow the process and may eliminate some viable candidates. The bottlenecks shown here are meant only to be illustrative of the variety of challenges encountered and are not shown in any particular order. Further, this linear pathway simplifies a very complex process that is more accurately represented in the NCATS Drug Discovery, Development, and Deployment Maps (4DM). Part 3 of this figure provides specific examples of translational science challenges across a variety of research areas, how translational science principles have been applied to address these challenges, and the solutions that overcame these challenges. The goal is that by utilizing translational science principles and approaches, all research can be made more effective and efficient as depicted in part 4 of the figure.