Molecular Epidemiology and its Role in Translational Medicine

• Main Author: Yeh Lee Yeong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Third Party Medicine International Publishing Group Co. Limited 2016-03-01
• Series: Journal of International Translational Medicine
• Subjects: Molecular epidemiology; Translational medicine; Phenotype; Whole-gene polymorphism
• Online Access: http://www.jitm.hk/EN/abstract/abstract189.shtml#

The primary definition of translational medicine is to develop new clinical therapeutic methods for the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of diseases by the therapeutic mechanism and new pathological cognition obtained in laboratory. Since the 21st century, most developed countries worldwide have made great adjustment in the strategies of translational medicine, but so far, only a few basic research results have been successfully translated into clinical practice. Research of translational medicine requires the team work of interdisciplinary groups, including medical experts, molecular biologists, and epidemiologists. With the rapid development of biological techniques and extensive application of molecular biology, epidemiology has become a real interdisciplinary discipline from conventional population survey, and stepped into genetic and molecular era, an era of molecular epidemiology. Molecular epidemiology not only provides research findings to translational medicine, but also bridges between basic science and medical research, so as to improve the effective translation of basic scientific results. This article, focusing on molecular epidemiology and translational medicine, mainly summarized the history and current status of translational medicine and emphatically interpreted the importance of molecular epidemiology to translational medicine.