Humankind has been researching and engineering for as long as we have existed. It was a matter of survival back then and it is still is nowadays. This long and involved process that spanned over several millennia has enabled civilisations to rise and fall. Thousands of years of science and scholarly traditions have led to the accumulation of an incommensurable amount of knowledge spread across various disciplines including mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.
What is translational science?
The latin word “Scientia”means knowledge, but it is only recently that the concept of “translational science” has emerged.To understand the essence of this neologism the expression needs to be broken down into two definitions “translation” and “science”.
The mathematical definition of translation corresponds in geometry, to the process of moving something from one place to another. The second word science is defined as follows: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
The combination of these two definitions leads to the concept of translational science, which is the translation of fundamental scienceinto practical applications. A famous illustration of this is the serendipitous discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming which broke open a new field in modern medicine.In other words, fundamental science is the engine that powers translational research. If for any particular reason, the engine stop running, then there is nothing left to be translated.
In order for science to be developed in an unbiased way it needs to be performed free from any interest, otherwise conflict arise and findings tend to matches expectation and not observations. This point is crucial and clearly is a roadblock for translational science which, by definition is developed to be applied in order to generate a useful application and potential profit.
Science is unique in the sense that it is not made to deliver a product; it is designed purely to generate knowledge. Obviously there are major directions in science, but there is not a pre-determined end point. Instead, each discovery leads to the next one and adds to our understanding of the world in which we live. It is an endless process that is really often convoluted. Taking advantage of a particular discovery to make an invention that will be useful in a specific context is a different process that cannot be assigned to fundamental science. It corresponds to an engineer perspective where a technical issue is solved by a technological advance. Research directions in fundamental science have to remain limitless, otherwise, the scope of discoveries, and therefore the range of potential applications, would be limited to a predefined scientific horizon.
A recent example of this, is the discovery of molecular scissors known as “crisp/rcas9” which is currently revolutionising biological and medical research. It is now possible to edit the genome of a living organism without complex procedure, this has opened up new research avenues and therapeutic options. Such a discovery was originally made by scientists working on understanding the basic molecular mechanism driving of viral infection in bacteria.
For practical and ethical reasons it is not sustainable for academic science to get engaged in products development.The lack of funding in academia for one part and the industry commitment and better ability to develop translational science leaves no doubt about role distribution.
Where things become blurry is that there is no clear demarcation defining where fundamental science does stop and where translational science is starting. There is not even aclear definition of what translational science is, this notion can vary between research fields. It is just a vague concept that is being abused since in essence every fundamental discovery is potentially translational, but in reality only a really low percentage will become translated. This confusion is mostly due to the time scale difference. While academia establishes project planned over a decade translational research projects span over a shorter period of time (a few years).
Why has translational science been so successful over the past few decades?
Translational science draws on the large amount of knowledge that has accumulated over the past century. Sadly, this wealth of basic findings is not endless. The accumulation of knowledge generated by fundamental science has suddenly started to down-size due to a major shift into translational science activity that mostly feeds on previous ground-breaking discoveries, but that does not generate any novel fundamental findings itself. Translational science owes its success in part to a high level of attention from the media. This has contributed to draw support from the public arena but this push by the media in a desperate search for a scientific buzz also comes with a risk. In fact there is a real threat for scientists of potentially losing credit in the long term if the community fails to deliver.
How does the system remain sustainable in the long-term?
It is critical to maintain the right balance between fundamental science, which constitutes the foundation of any progress, and translational science, which converts a discovery into a useful application. This equilibrium is hard to maintain simply because the rate by which these two sciences evolve are dissimilar. In the case of basic science, significant advances are relatively slow mostly due to the fact that science relies on serendipity and scientific wandering. Some unexpected paths have to be explored over decades to enable a ground-breaking discovery. Failure is an essential part of the discovery process. Further, basic science is often limited by available technology. Ancient concepts are revisited regularly due to the development of new technology that enables us to probe fundamental mechanisms in more depth.
By essence, observation and experimentation are slow processes that rely more and more on complex research tools. Since science is becoming increasingly specialised and dependent on cutting-edge technologies, the discovery process is becoming increasingly more challenging. For instance, one of the bottlenecks of modern science is managing the huge datasets generated by genomic research. In that particular case, the physiological interpretation of the data is one of the limiting step. For this particular reason, it will take time to bridge the gap between genomics approaches and personalised medicine for instance.
By contrast, translational science is evolving at a rapid pace, since it is being determined by a specific endpoint, and its proof of principle, feasibility and viability have been already established by fundamental science.
Where to draw the line between fundamental science and translational science?
This discrepancy has been masked until now by the fact that a lot of knowledge has been accumulated in fundamental science and translational science could draw from this gigantic gold mine. However shortages in option start to arise in particular industries, since basic knowledge is running out. For instance in the case of drug discovery, conventional molecular targets have been over-exploited and pharmaceutical industries and academia have fallen short in discovering new molecular mechanisms that would lead to alternative therapeutic avenues.
National research agencies are pushing hard to encourage translational science, but the way it is being developed is not optimum. Funding bodies are trying to impose a shift of fundamental science into translational science, instead of promoting more bridging strategies that would enable academics and industries to work in a complementary fashion. At the international level with the merciless competition for commercialisation, this strategic choice could cost even more than not investing into fundamental science. At the end of the day, any novel drug of technology that reaches the market will be used on a global scale, and the price of buying its patent will cost a lot more than the initial amount of money that would have been necessary to discover its principle.Governments and other funders must recognise the importance of having a thriving base of fundamental knowledge from which to translate, for both economic and health reasons.
Last but not least, an essential aspect of fundamental science is often forgotten, its main function, which is to generate knowledge. There is no direct dollar value for knowledge and expertise, however one of the industries directly benefiting from this output is the education sector. Translating knowledge into the education system is far more valuable in the long term than any drug that is being commercialised, and it is pretty daunting to envision a future where the engine of human progress would fall into decay.
Welcome to our monthly trawl for developmental biology (and related) preprints.
This month we decided to reinstate our Plant Development section after a Twitter chat, and as it happened October had a glut of preprints covering all aspects of plant development. You’ll also find lots of regeneration (kidneys, colons, eyes, axons and whole colonial tunicates), a typically diverse Evo-devo zoo, and a feast for fans of cell division in our Cell Biology section.
The preprints were hosted on bioRxiv, PeerJ, andarXiv. Let us know if we missed anything, and use these links to get to the section you want:
Surface tension determines tissue shape and growth kinetics
Sebastian Ehrig, Cécile M. Bidan, Alan West, Cornelius Jacobi, Karen Lam, Philip Kollmannsberger, Ansgar Petersen, Pavel Tomancak, Krishna Kommareddy, Franz Dieter Fischer, Peter Fratzl, John W. C. Dunlop
A segmented fly egg chamber, from Lamire, et al.’s preprint
Single-cell RNA-seq reveals that glioblastoma recapitulates normal brain development
Charles P. Couturier, Shamini Ayyadhury, Phuong U. Le, Jean Monlong, Gabriele Riva, Redouane Allache, Salma Baig, Xiaohua Yan, Mathieu Bourgey, Changseok Lee, Yu Chang David Wang, V. Wee Yong, Marie-Christine Guiot, Bratislav Misic, Jack Antel, Guillaume Bourque, Jiannis Ragoussis, Kevin Petrecca
Single-cell in situ transcriptomic map of astrocyte cortical layer diversity
Omer Ali Bayraktar, Theresa Bartels, Damon Polioudakis, Staffan Holmqvist, Lucile Ben Haim, Adam M.H. Young, Kirti Prakash, Alexander Brown, Mercedes F. Paredes, Riki Kawaguchi, John Stockley, Khalida Sabeur, Sandra M. Chang, Eric Huang, Peter Hutchinson, Erik M. Ullian, Daniel H. Geschwind, Giovanni Coppola, David H. Rowitch
CRISPR-Cas9 Screens Reveal Genes Regulating a G0-like State in Human Neural Progenitors
Heather Feldman, Chad Toledo, Sonali Arora, Pia Hoellerbauer, Philip Corrin, Lucas Carter, Megan Kufeld, Hamid Bolouri, Ryan Basom, Jeffrey Delrow, Joshua Meier, Feng Zhang, José McFaline-Figueroa, Cole Trapnell, Steven Pollard, Christopher Plaisier, PATRICK PADDISON
RNA-Seq in 296 phased trios provides a high resolution map of genomic imprinting
Bharati Jadhav, Ramin Monajemi, Kristina K. Gagalova, Daniel Ho, Harmen H.M. Draisma, Mark A. van de Wiel, Lude Franke, Bastiaan T. Heijmans, Joyce van Meurs, Rick Jansen, GoNL Consortium, BIOS Consortium, Peter A.C. ʼt Hoen, Andrew J. Sharp, Szymon M. Kiełbasa
Aged-senescent cells contribute to impaired heart regeneration
Fiona C Lewis-McDougall, Prashant J Ruchaya, Eva Domenjo-Vila, Tze Shin Teoh, Larissa Prata, Beverley J Cottle, James E Clark, Prakash P Punjabi, Wael Awad, Daniele Torella, Tamara Tchkonia, James L Kirkland, Georgina M Ellison-Hughes
PP4-dependent HDAC3 dephosphorylation discriminates between axonal regeneration and regenerative failure
Arnau Hervera, Luming Zhou, Ilaria Palmisano, Eilidh McLachlan, Guiping Kong, Thomas Haynes Hutson, Matt C Danzi, Vance P Lemmon, John L Bixby, Andreu Matamoros-Angles, Kirsi Forsberg, Francesco De Virgiliis, Dina P Matheos, Janine Kwapis, Marcelo A Wood, Radhika Puttagunta, Jose Antonio Del Rio, Simone Di Giovanni
Murine MPDZ-Linked Hydrocephalus is Caused by Hyperpermeability of the Choroid Plexus
Junning Yang, Claire Simonneau, Robert Kilker, Laura Oakley, Matthew Byrne, Zuzana Nichtova, Ioana Stefanescu, Fnu Pardeep-Kumar, Sushil Tripathi, Eric Londin, Pascale Saugier-Veber, Belinda Willard, Mathew Thakur, Stephen Pickup, Richard Smeyne, Arie Horowitz
Hypomorphic mutation of the mouse Huntington’s disease gene orthologue
Vidya Murthy, Toma Tebaldi, Toshimi Yoshida, Serkan Erdin, Teresa Calzonetti, Ravi Vijayvargia, Takshashila Tripathi, Emanuela Kerschbamer, Ihn Sik Seong, Alessandro Quattrone, Michael E. Talkowski, James F. Gusella, Katia Georgopoulos, Marcy E. MacDonald, Marta Biagioli
Functional dissection of the ARGONAUTE7 promoter
J Steen Hoyer, Jose L Pruneda-Paz, Ghislain Breton, Mariah A Hassert, Emily E Holcomb, Halley Fowler, Kaylyn M Bauer, Jacob Mreen, Steve A Kay, James C Carrington
Root and shoot apical meristems from Vernoux, et al.’s preprint
A network of transcriptional repressors mediates auxin response specificity
Teva Vernoux, Jekaterina Truskina, Jingyi Han, Carlos S Galvan-Ampudia, Stéphanie Lainé, Géraldine Brunoud, Silvana Porco, Anne-Maarit Bågman, Margot E Smit, Malcolm Bennett, François Roudier, Siobhan M Brady, Anthony Bishopp
Floral phenotypes in Arabibodpsis, from Taylor, et al.’s preprint
Programmed DNA elimination of germline development genes in songbirds
Cormac M. Kinsella, Francisco J. Ruiz-Ruano, Anne-Marie Dion-Côté, Alexander J. Charles, Toni I. Gossmann, Josefa Cabrero, Dennis Kappei, Nicola Hemmings, Mirre J. P. Simons, Juan P. M. Camacho, Wolfgang Forstmeier, Alexander Suh
The whale shark genome reveals how genomic and physiological properties scale with body size
Seung Gu Park, Victor Luria, Jessica A. Weber, Sungwon Jeon, Hak-Min Kim, Yeonsu Jeon, Youngjune Bhak, Jehun Jun, Sang Wha Kim, Won Hee Hong, Semin Lee, Yun Sung Cho, Amir Karger, John W. Cain, Andrea Manica, Soonok Kim, Jae-Hoon Kim, Jeremy S. Edwards, Jong Bhak, George M. Church
NanoJ: a high-performance open-source super-resolution microscopy toolbox
Romain Laine, Kalina Tosheva, Nils Gustafsson, Robert D. M. Gray, Pedro Almada, David Albrecht, Gabriel T. Risa, Fredrik Hurtig, Ann-Christin Lindås, Buzz Baum, Jason Mercer, Christophe Leterrier, Pedro M. Pereira, Siân Culley, Ricardo Henriques
Robust and sensitive GFP-based cGMP sensor for real time imaging in intact Caenorhabditis elegans
Sarah Woldemariam, Jatin Nagpal, Joy Li, Martin Schneider Schneider, Raakhee Shankar, Mary Futey, Aruna Varshney, Kristine Andersen, Benjamin Barsi-Rhyne, Alan Tran, Wagner Steuer Costa, Chantal Brueggemann, Scott Hamilton, Denise Ferkey, Miri VanHoven, Alexander Gottschalk, Noelle L’Etoile
We are looking for: Enthusiastic researchers with a BSc or Master Degree in biomedical sciences with interest in Developmental Neurobiology. Good academic records are required, as well as good spoken and written command of English.
We offer: A highly multidisciplinary and competitive training programme in biomedical research. Access to state-of-the-art infrastructures.
The selected candidate will investigate growth of the central nervous system and associated primary microcephaly, with the aim to understand the mechanisms that control cell numbers and brain size at birth. We recently demonstrated that the activity of classical growth factors such as Sonic hedgehog and BMPs is required for the expansion of the pool of neural progenitors by maintaining symmetric divisions. We are now combining high resolution imaging and data from transcriptomics and functional genetics, to describe the mechanisms downstream these growth factors that regulate neural stem cell maintenance.
Those interested please send CV, a cover letter justifying the interest of the applicant in the project, and the names of two referees toemgbmc@ibmb.csic.es
The Royal Society is organising the upcoming Single cell ecology meeting on 10-11 December 2018 in London, UK, on behalf of Professor Thomas Richards, Dr Ramon Massana and Professor Neil Hall.
This will be an interdisciplinary meeting to explore the use of single cell technologies to understand the function, diversity and interactions of microbes. This meeting aims to bring together physicists who manipulate cells; microbiologists who seek to understand the nature of microbial communities; genomicists who are developing new approaches to study individual cells; and evolutionary biologists who are trying to sample microbes and understand where they branch on the tree of life.
This two-day symposium will showcase the best in developmental biology across the life course. From embryogenesis through to ageing, areas of current excitement in the field will be highlighted by plenary talks from 15 internationally renowned speakers, along with selected short talks from abstracts.
The symposium will honour the memory of Rosa Beddington, a leading UK embryologist who was Head of the Division of Mammalian Development at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research from 1993-2001. Many of Rosa’s colleagues and lab alumni will be attending the symposium.
We invite submissions for short talks (15 minutes) from early-career researchers (PhD students, postdocs and recently-established PIs). Please submit your abstracts to events@crick.ac.uk by 1 December 2018. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words including the title, authors and institution information. The presenter for short talks must have registered their attendance to the conference by 1 December 2018. Please ensure the presenter’s name is underlined on your submission.
We look forward to seeing you at the Crick in February,
The Organising Committee (James Briscoe, Alex Gould, Rita Sousa-Nunes and Jean-Paul Vincent)
Several MRC-funded positions are available in the Scholpp lab in the Living Systems Institute (LSI) at the University of Exeter to elucidate various aspects of cytoneme-mediated Wnt trafficking in vertebrates.
We are looking for
a Postdoc (3years, starting in Spring 2019), two PhD students (3.5years, starting in Autumn 2019, UK/EU only), and a Tech (2years, starting in Spring 2019)
Application deadlines: November / December 2018!
More information about the lab, about the LSI, and about our recent research in The Node.
Several postdoctoral positions are available in the group of Taija Mäkinen at Uppsala University. The lab studies fundamental mechanisms of tissue morphogenesis in the vascular system. The aim is to understand how endothelial cells communicate with each other and the tissue environment to co-ordinate vascular morphogenesis and formation of functionally specialised blood and lymphatic vessel types. To do so, the group utilises advanced mouse genetic tools and state-of-the-art cell and molecular biology techniques (including single cell RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, confocal, light-sheet and super-resolution microscopy). For more details about the group’s research please see: http://www.makinenlab.com/
Selected recent publications from the laboratory:
Zhang et al, Nat Commun 2018; Frye et al, Nat Commun 2018; Zhang et al, Development 2018; Wang et al, Development 2017; Martina-Almedina et al, J Clin Invest 2016; Martinez-Corral et al, Circ Res 2015; Stanczuk et al, Cell Rep 2015; Tatin et al, Dev Cell 2013; Lutter et al, J Cell Biol 2012; Bazigou et al, J Clin Invest 2011.
Work description:
The selected candidate(s) will work on one of the following topics: 1) functional characterisation of tissue-specific lymphatic endothelial progenitor cells (as part of an ERC-funded project), 2) identification and functional characterisation of vascular-bed specific genes, or 3) elucidation of disease mechanisms in vascular malformations. In addition, one position will be in collaboration with the group of Ingvar Ferby at Uppsala University (http://www.imbim.uu.se/forskargrupper/cancer/ferby-ingvar/), exploring how vesicular trafficking and compartmentalisation of growth factor receptors instruct behaviour of epithelial and endothelial cells using e.g. live-cell imaging approaches.
Qualifications:
We are looking for highly motivated individuals with a PhD and research background in molecular or cell biology, developmental biology or biochemistry, and a proven track record of successful scientific work. Strong background in molecular/cell biology, mouse genetics, flow cytometry and/or imaging is required.
How to apply:
To apply, please send your CV together with the names of three references and a short description of yourself and the motivation to join the group to: taija.makinen@igp.uu.se
The position is open until 28 December 2018, or until suitable candidate(s) is found.
Are you interested in applying mathematics, statistics or deep learning/machine learning to biomedical problems? Apply now for a MRC WIMM Prize Studentship, to start in October 2019. The studentship is fully-funded for four years, including a stipend of £18,000 p.a. and all University and College fees paid.
Applicants with a background in Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, Statistics or Computer Science are encouraged to apply. To be eligible for a full award, applicants must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and must have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship. Further details about residence requirements may be obtained here.
For further information on how to apply can be found here.
All applications must be received by 12 noon (UK time) on Friday, 11 January 2019
Interviews will take place the week commencing 28 January 2019.
The Zebrafish Interest Group at the University of Utah held its first Utah Fish Conference (UFC) on October 8, 2018. The conference was organized by pre- and post-doctoral trainees to celebrate the University’s Zebrafish Interest Group (ZIG), as well as to unite the Mountain West fish community. This 1-day event hosted over 80 attendees from 6 institutes. UFC was sponsored by the University’s ZIG, as well as Tecniplast USA, Aquatic Enterprises, IDT, Aquaneering, wFluidx, NCI, NEB, Zeiss, ThermoFisher by Life Technologies, and Developmental Dynamics.
UFC was held at the Crocker Science Center at the University of Utah. The talks were well-attended by an active audience.
The event featured two excellent keynotes, Trista E. North at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Bruce Draper at University of California-Davis. Dr. North jump-started the day’s event with a stimulating talk on the hematopoietic signaling connectome. She was followed by two hour-long sessions of trainee talks, which represented labs across the University and trainees from outside institutes. There was an active poster session comprising 30 posters from 16 labs, with presenters from all career stages, from undergraduate to faculty researchers.
Members of the Organizing Committee (Left to Right: Chelsea Herdman, Alexis Fulbright, and Penny Lam) caught chatting with Dr. North during a coffee break.
An “Ask Me Anything” panel followed the poster session and featured both senior and junior faculty from the University, as well as Dr. North. A pre-doctoral trainee, Deeptha Vasudevan, moderated questions from the audience, and the panel covered topics from how to settle on a career path to advice on how to start your lab. The AMA was followed by an exciting evening talk from Dr. Bruce Draper about sex determination.
The poster session featured 30 posters from a diverse group of labs.
During dinner, the awards for best talk and best posters were announced. Robert Mackin (U of Idaho) won the Outstanding Young Investigator award for his excellent talk. Poster awards were given to 2 trainees in each category: undergraduate, graduate, or post-doctoral trainee. Awards went to: Jeffrey Dunn (BYU) and Samuel Caton (BYU) in the undergraduate category; Dana Klatt Shaw (U of Utah) and Srishti Kotiyal (U of Utah) in the graduate category; and Chelsea Herdman (U of Utah) and Angie Serrano (U of Utah) in the post-doctoral category. Awards were cash prizes sponsored by Developmental Dynamics. Following dinner, an after-party was hosted at The Porcupine Pub, sponsored by ThermoFisher by Life Technologies. The conversation was lively and offered more opportunities for trainees to intermix and mingle with faculty, Dr. North, and Dr. Draper.
The UFC was an invigorating moment for the University’s ZIG community, as well as for the Mountain West fish community. It was an excellent way to highlight the working happening within the region, and unite different institutes.
UFC2018 Organizing Committee:
Gabriel Bossé, PhD, @GabrielBosse1 (Randall Peterson Lab)
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