HBTM Philosophy

Three Basic Principles of the Discipline of Human Biology and Translational Medicine

The first principle is that the human being is the most appropriate model organism for unraveling the normal and abnormal workings of each of the organ systems and the integrated whole—at the cellular, molecular, genetic, epigenetic, individual, or population level. In this paradigm, fundamental investigations are also pursued in selected experimental model systems that are designed and guided by the explicit context of their connections to the human diseases that represent the central motivation for these studies.

The second principle is that human disease is an incomparable lens through which to view the inner workings of the human body. Each disease is in effect an “experiment of nature” that reveals a critical piece of the integrated whole necessary for normal function. A fundamental goal of the Human Genome Project was to provide the cartography for mapping the functional basis of everything from normal development to cancer biology in each human organ system and tissue. At the same time, diseases of enormous complexity and societal impact—from diabetes to tuberculosis—require the synthesis of fundamental advances that cross multiple traditional disciplines, all of which are subsumed under the interdisciplinary approaches that define the study of human biology and disease.

The final principle is that translational science forms a bidirectional bridge between the traditional scientific disciplines and methodologies and the in vivo reality of human disease. Viewed as a wheel, translational medicine can be turned clockwise from bench-to-bedside, or counterclockwise from bedside-to-bench, with the resulting knowledge simultaneously basic and fundamental, as well as practical and applied.

Cornerstones of the Discipline

Four intellectual cornerstones form the foundation of this discipline: 1) an understanding of human genetics and genomics, including bioinformatics, with a focus on the correlation of genotype and phenotype; 2) the study of cellular metabolism and molecular biology in the context of human diseases; 3) the development of insights into human pathology, pharmacology, and integrative pathophysiology as the basis for drug discovery and drug development; and 4) the acquisition of fundamental skills in experimental design and biostatistics as applied to both basic and clinical research. A common thread to these topics is the rigorous study of human diseases with the goal of translating fundamental biomedical advances into new approaches to disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

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