Lessons from the UK in translational research

Professor Teede in London

Translational research success in the United Kingdom will help Australia, according to Professor Helena Teede who is collaborating with health and research partners in London this week.

Director of Monash Centre of Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI) and Executive Director of Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), Professor Teede is undertaking a visiting Professorship, and also building collaborations with Kings Partners AHSC, the Farr Institute, Hammersmith Hospital and Barts.

“My visits have been invaluable in learning how successfully the UK is integrating research, education and health services,” said Professor Teede. 

“On the 10th anniversary of the National Institute of Health Research, which disperses one billion pounds per year to build and drive research to improve health, the UK research sector is thriving, growing and having a tangible impact on health.”

Professor Teede said key to this success has been the integration of the sectors and the aligned vision around health impact.

“Lessons from the UK are critical to Australia as we consider the future dispersion of the Medical Research Future Fund,” said Professor Teede.

“The most inspiring observation has been the move from a sequential inefficient and antiquated approach to translational research across the continuum, which has assumed that the benchtop researcher initiates translational research as it then passes through animal to human work, then out into practice.

“In the UK now there is an interactive, iterative and parallel approach to translational research across the continuum, with research at all stages informed by and driven by clinical and health service need, driving the pace and scale of research and more importantly to translation.”

“Examples of this success include datasets linked to health services and outcomes, and to biospecimens enabling quantum advances in research on human tissue including genetics and cancer.”

Professor Teede said other examples include the "pull" of the health service and clinical needs driving interdisciplinary research to directly address need, and enabling rapid translation and implementation.

“The Monash Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME) initiative at Monash University is an exceptional example of this type of approach,” added Professor Teede.

Professor Teede plans to bring her observations of success back to Australia to build further links and collaborations between our AHSCs and those in the UK.