Integrity in Translational Research
Translational research is all the rage. But while “it seems important to almost everyone,” Woolf (2008) has aptly observed that “translational research means different things to different people.” What is crystal clear, though, is that everybody wants ‘results’. Treatments and cures for diseases top the list of desired results, as do public and population health strategies for disease prevention. Accordingly, the past two decades, especially, have evidenced some fascinating new dynamics in the relationship between science and society, and between scientists and citizens: a new social contract is emerging for how biomedical science works in the contemporary world. Biomedical scientists, whether they like it or not, must promise specific results early in the research process, must produce results sooner and not later, and must promote their results so as to assist in the ‘translation’ of basic research into potentially clinically relevant outcomes. The result is, too often, a loss of integrity in scientific research, compounded by a loss of trust in the research enterprise. In this presentation, Dr. Robert will explore how to rescue integrity in translational science.
Join us for Jason Scott Robert’s lecture on Friday, October 10, 2014 from noon till 1 pm in person or online:
In person: The lecture will take place in E4 Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.
Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!
Can’t make it? View this webinar and others as archived recordings.
Jason Scott Robert, PhD, holds the Lincoln Chair in Ethics at Arizona State University, where he is also Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the Life Sciences, and Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics. Dr. Robert teaches and conducts research at the intersection of bioethics and the philosophy of biology. His recent work has attended to the nature, ethics, and outcomes of translational research in the neurosciences.
MSU Bioethics 