Mission

Research on brain diseases, as on any disease affecting humans, often proceeds from a promising animal model to the application of these results to human patients with that disease. The patient studies usually determine whether the animal model has accurately portrayed what is actually occurring in the human disease and whether the intervention (such as a drug, device, or a surgical technique) works safely and effectively in patients.

Based on this consideration, the primary translational mission of our Center of Excellence (CoE) will be to determine whether interventions which appear to work in the preclinical animal model of the disease also show promise in treating patients who have the disease. However, even more challenging is the fact that, despite evidence of successful preclinical studies, translational human studies often fail to give the expected results.

With the advent of genomics and proteomics technologies, personalized medicine offers the promise and potential of uncovering the largely unseen details of disease causality, onset, and progression. Thus, a broad aim of personalized medicine in our CoE will be the use of a molecular characterization approach to create a better system for disease classification. This translational research will lead to earlier diagnosis and interventions and to more specific treatments predicated on an individual's specific biochemical "fingerprint."

Through this approach "from bench to bedside" and vice versa, translational investigators in our CoE will identify new therapies that will provide clinical benefits for patients.