Work

Translational Research in the Time of COVID-19—Dissolving Boundaries

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Scientific research gathers data and evidence to test hypotheses within a solid almost philosophical framework that has evolved over hundreds of years [1].About 30 years ago, the concept of translational research emerged across life sciences, first appearing in PubMed in 1993, to support the increased flow of scientific discovery through to patient and societal benefit [2].It was cemented as a strategic priority in the United Kingdom about 10 years later with the creation of nationally commissioned Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs).Different steps in the path from 'bench-to-bedside' were defined moving through proof of principle, defining mechanisms, evaluating benefits, piloting, large trials, outcome-informed improvements, and adoption into the healthcare system.Designated funding streams were created to support each stage, encouraging researchers to balance their distinctive contributions and establish transparent criteria to inform facile progression to the next step of the pathway.Taken together, the overarching objective has been to optimally balance the pursuit of intellectual brilliance with cost-effective and rapid flow from discovery to delivery.From a frontline perspective of clinical infectious diseases, clinical virology, infection prevention and control, laboratory diagnostic service, and translational research, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)/Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has turned our world upside down.This is a personal account of that impact from within a UK Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), King's Health Partners (KHP) [3], after about 4 months observing colleagues coming together in response to a new and acutely dangerous disease.Like many academically aligned healthcare institutions around the world, we have seen a large cohort of patients in a short space of time; for us, approximately 3,200 patients of whom about 800 spent time in an intensive care unit.Here, we draw out some potentially common themes that emerged on our journey to introducing and scaling up delivery and development of novel diagnostic tests and services whilst also recruiting patients into clinical trials, commencing disease pathogenesis research projects, contributing data and samples for nationally coordinated projects, and responding to rapidly changing clinical service needs, presumably an agenda that colleagues in analogous organisations around the world will be facing.Our focus is on how clinicians, clinical academics, research and healthcare scientists as well as research nurses came together on the ground to highlight the successes and opportunities alongside the challenges and obstacles that may well be common themes.

Source: PLoS Pathogens

DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008898