New Medical Journal Announced: Science Translational Medicine

The American Association for the Advancement of Science announced this week that it will launch a new journal dedicated to translational medicine in the Fall. Translational medicine uses insights from basic biology to improve medical care. The former director of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni, MD, will be chief scientific advisor.

In explaining translational medicine in its press release, AAAS cites as an example the work of NMF Professional Advisory Board member Hal Dietz, MD, and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins. They successfully studied losartan in mice engineered to have Marfan syndrome and now, in cooperation with the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute and the Pediatric Heart Network, are involved in the clinical trial to test losartan in people with Marfan syndrome.

The NMF has always been a strong proponent of translational research, encouraging research that bridges the gap from the bench (lab) to bedside (patient care). The NMF’s research grant program has a history of funding this research and lauds AAAS for choosing to focus on it in its new journal.

Hal Dietz, MD, will serve on the publication’s advisory board.