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A call to action for translational sciences in COVID-19 and future pandemics

Translation Together, a transnational consortium of translational research organizations, reflects on successes and challenges in regional COVID-19 pandemic responses and proposes five priorities to improve preparedness for future global public health crises and improve the global approach to translational research and science.
By
  1. Kanny K. Wan

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  2. Danielle Davis

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  3. Taylor N. Lee

    1. Kanny K. Wan1*, Danielle Davis1, Taylor N. Lee1, Stephanie L. Ford-Scheimer1, Antonio L. Andreu2, Florence Bietrix2, Justin Bryans3, Marco T. Castro4, Nobuyoshi Chiba5, Jessica M. Faupel-Badger1, Brittany Haynes1, Ryutaro Hirasawa5, Carlos M. Morel4, Thiago Moreno L. Souza4, David Morrow2, Trent Munro6, Stuart Newman7, Anton E. Ussi2, Poliana B. Zorzal4, Matthew D. Hall1, Donald C. Lo1* and Christine M. Cutillo1*1 National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.2EATRIS ERIC, European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.3LifeArc, London, UK.4 Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.5 Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Tokyo, Japan.6 Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.7 Therapeutic Innovation Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.*e-mail: kanny.wan@fda.hhs.gov, donald.lo@nih.gov, cutilloc@mail.nih.gov

  4. Stephanie L. Ford-Scheimer

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  5. Antonio L. Andreu

    1. EATRIS ERIC, European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  6. Florence Bietrix

    1. EATRIS ERIC, European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  7. Justin Bryans

    1. LifeArc, London, UK.

  8. Marco T. Castro

    1. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  9. Nobuyoshi Chiba

    1. Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Tokyo, Japan.

  10. Jessica M. Faupel-Badger

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  11. Brittany Haynes

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  12. Ryutaro Hirasawa

    1. Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Tokyo, Japan.

  13. Carlos M. Morel

    1. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  14. Thiago Moreno L. Souza

    1. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  15. David Morrow

    1. EATRIS ERIC, European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  16. Trent Munro

    1. Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

  17. Stuart Newman

    1. Therapeutic Innovation Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

  18. Anton E. Ussi

    1. EATRIS ERIC, European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  19. Poliana B. Zorzal

    1. Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

  20. Matthew D. Hall

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  21. Donald C. Lo

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

  22. Christine M. Cutillo

    1. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, USA.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global research community made tremendous scientific progress in record time in areas such as vaccine development. Nevertheless, persistent barriers to progress in other areas were also apparent. Here, as Translation Together (TT), a global group of translational research organizations (Supplementary Table 1), we draw on our experiences and lessons learned to propose five actions to improve the preparedness of the translational research community for future public health crises and improve global health.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 21, 165-166 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-022-00020-6

Acknowledgements

We thank all TT members, Masato Ooka and Hyen Jong Hong for helpful discussions. EATRIS (A.E.U., A.L.A., F.B.) acknowledges ISIDORE (101046133), EATRIS Plus (871096) and TRANSVAC (730964) funded by EU’s Horizon 2020 program. T.M. is supported by TIA funding, and TIA (S.N.) receives funding from the Australian DESE. P.Z .thanks IBMP for fellowship funding. TMLS is funded by CNPq, FAPERJ and Inova Fiocruz Program. K.K.W., D.D., T.N.L., S.L.F.-S., J.M.F.-B., B.H., M.D.H., D.C.L., and C.M.C. are supported by the IRP of the NIH NCATS; opinions expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of the NIH.

Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary tables

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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