Role of Translational Medicine
The role of translational medicine, within the pharmaceutical industry drug discovery process, is to provide biomarkers which enhance decision making at critical milestones in a compound’s development through the pipeline. A biomarker is a quantifiable biological variable that characterizes cellular, organ, physiological, pathological or clinical condition. For example a biomarker could be: an anatomical or physiological measurement; a gene expression, protein or biochemical profile; a quantifiable measurement from an image (e.g. MRI, PET, optical fluorescence).
Wyeth translational medicine defines 5 types of biomarkers which are required to be in place for successful development:
