Access

Published online 11 June 2008 | Nature 453, 840-842 (2008) | doi:10.1038/453840a

News Feature

Translational research: Crossing the valley of death

A chasm has opened up between biomedical researchers and the patients who need their discoveries. Declan Butler asks how the ground shifted and whether the US National Institutes of Health can bridge the gap.

“NIH stands for the National Institutes of Health, not the National Institutes of Biomedical Research, or the National Institutes of Basic Biomedical Research.” This jab, by molecular biologist Alan Schechter at the NIH, is a pointed one.

Comments

Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.