Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research Basic research or fundamental research is research carried out to increase understanding of fundamental principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate commercial benefits: basic research can be thought of as arising out of curiosity. However, in the long term it is the basis for many commercial products and applied research, applied research Applied research: is research accessing and using some part of the research communities' accumulated theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific, often state, commercial, or client driven purpose. Applied research is often opposed to pure research in debates about research ideals, programs, and projects, or translational research The concept of translational research has received very strong focus in the biomedical community over the last few years, as a new way of thinking about and conducting life sciences research to accelerate healthcare outcomes. Global Pharmaceutical companies and the NIH have been pouring billions of dollars into life sciences basic research and are conducted to aid the body of knowledge in the field of medicine Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Medical research can be divided into two general categories: the evaluation of new treatments for both safety and efficacy in what are termed clinical trials In medical research, clinical trials are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for new drugs or devices. These trials can only take place once satisfactory information has been gathered on the quality of the product and its non-clinical safety, and Health Authority/Ethics Committee approval is granted in the country where the, and all other research that contributes to the development of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research Pre-clinical development is a stage of research that begins before clinical trials can begin, and during which important feasibility, iterative testing and safety (also known as Good Laboratory Practice or "GLP") data is collected if its goal is specifically to elaborate knowledge for the development of new therapeutic strategies. A new paradigm to biomedical research is being termed translational research The concept of translational research has received very strong focus in the biomedical community over the last few years, as a new way of thinking about and conducting life sciences research to accelerate healthcare outcomes. Global Pharmaceutical companies and the NIH have been pouring billions of dollars into life sciences basic research and are, which focuses on iterative feedback loops between the basic and clinical research domains to accelerate knowledge translation from the bedside to the bench, and back again.
The increased longevity of humans over the past century can be significantly attributed to advances resulting from medical research. Among the major benefits have been vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains a small amount of an agent that resembles a microorganism. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize for measles Measles is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a generalized, maculopapular, erythematous rash and polio Poliomyelitis, often called polio or infantile paralysis, is an acute viral infectious disease spread from person to person, primarily via the fecal-oral route. The term derives from the Greek poliós , meaning "grey", myelós (µυελός), referring to the "spinal cord", and the suffix -itis, which denotes inflammation, insulin Insulin is a hormone that has extensive effects on metabolism and other body functions, such as vascular compliance. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stopping use of fat as an energy source. When insulin is absent , glucose is not taken treatment for diabetes Diabetes mellitus —often referred to simply as diabetes—is a condition in which the body does not produce enough, or properly respond to, insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas. Insulin enables cells to absorb glucose. In diabetes, the body can't use its own insulin as well as it should, doesn't make enough insulin, and sometimes both, classes of antibiotics In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound that kills or inhibits the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics belong to the group of antimicrobial compounds used to treat infections caused by micro-organisms, including fungi and protozoa for treating a host of maladies, medication for high blood pressure Blood pressure is the pressure (force per unit area) exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as it moves away from the heart through arteries and capillaries, and toward the heart through veins. When unqualified, the term blood, improved treatments for AIDS This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk, statins The statins are a class of drugs that lower cholesterol levels in people with or at risk of cardiovascular disease and other treatments for atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is the condition in which an artery wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as cholesterol. It is a syndrome affecting arterial blood vessels, a chronic inflammatory response in the walls of arteries, in large part due to the accumulation of macrophage white blood cells and promoted by low density, new surgical techniques such as microsurgery Microsurgery is a general term for surgery requiring an operating microscope. The most obvious developments have been procedures developed to allow anastomosis of successively smaller blood vessels and nerves which have allowed transfer of tissue from one part of the body to another and re-attachment of severed parts. Although microsurgery is used, and increasingly successful treatments for cancer Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors,. New, beneficial tests and treatments are expected as a result of the human genome project The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify and map the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. Many challenges remain, however, including the appearance of antibiotic resistance Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of antibiotics. It is a specific type of drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance evolves via natural selection acting upon random mutation, but it can also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population. Once such a gene is generated, bacteria can and the obesity Obesity is associated with many diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility, though a limited number of cases are due epidemic.
Most of the research in the field is pursued by biomedical scientists A biomedical scientist , is a scientist educated in the field of biological science, especially in the context of medicine. Biomedicians are typically active in biomedical research and tend to have more limited and research oriented contact with patients than physicians in cooperation with molecular biologists.
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Seattle Times
If it can approach those levels in people, it could slash the toll from one of the world's worst scourges, said Stefan Kappe, of Seattle Biomedical Research ...
Malaria Vaccine Appears Ready to Test in Humans KPLU
Kenya: Malaria Vaccine Trials Launched in High Risk Regions AllAfrica.com
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Wayne Pacelle
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:02:56 GM
The tens of millions of animals used in . biomedical research. in the U.S. are kept behind closed doors, with scientific studies when published providing only sanitized glimpses of what the animals experience. ...
