Translational medicinie - a path from bench to bed and back...

Recent years have brought a very fast development of molecular techniques, which enable us to understand the mechanisms of major biological processes. However at the same time when we indulge ourselves in advanced models of physiology and pathophysiology, we tend to forget about the ultimate goal of biomedicine - our patients and their benefits. Current essay, discusses a need and possible ways to re-establish links between biomedical research and cinical medicine. The need for this is emphasized by the fact that during recent years in spite of increasing funding of biomedical research the number of new drug registrations is falling. The reasons for this are complex but often include insuffcient communication between scientists and clinicians but also pitfalls of the models currently used for tesing of new drug safety and efficacy. Moreover closer cooperation between academia and industry is warranted. These gaps are filled by translational medicine - which although only recently established will be a critical step in translating science to the clinic