The agreement about creation of the Alliance of Translational Medicine (ATM) was signed on Tuesday, December, 20 in MEPhI.

The main objective of the union is to accelerate the introduction of the most advanced achievements of modern fundamental science into practical health care. The alliance includes MEPhI, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, National Research Tomsk State University and the Center for Strategic Research “North-West” Foundation.

"Despite very significant achievements of modern biomedical research, the degree of their results’ implementation in everyday clinical practice is not sufficient," - said MEPhI rector Mikhail Strikhanov. According to him, the task of translational medicine is to reduce and, ideally, eliminate the gap between cutting-edge scientific research and practical health care.

"We want the most advanced fundamental research and development to turn as soon as possible into new medical drugs and clinical technology, available to doctors and patients," he explained.

In order to achieve the stated objectives, the participants of the alliance suggested to join forces in accelerated drug development. It is planned, in particular, to develop and use an integrated database of biomarkers to create a patient monitoring system during first medicine tests, as well as computer models of data accumulation and analysis.

In addition, the Alliance intends to conduct scientific research, provide services in the field of applied research. Pharmaceutical, industrial companies and healthcare institutions will be able to address it as a developer of sensing technologies, new materials, technologies of data processing, technologies of nanoteranostics, and neurotechnologies. And research institutes can take it as a partner in basic research in the biomedical field.

It is also planned to create an integrated digital information platform for the collection and computer processing of medical research data as a part of the ATM. They will flock from universities and clinics partners of the alliance, and Alliance experts will design their processing models. This will allow quickly and accurately diagnose patients by their analyses and recommend them a personal treatment regimen.

The Alliance intends to participate in the implementation of the National Technology Initiative as a leading national network center. In addition, the ATM universities will open network graduate and post-graduate educational programs in new directions at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. This will allow train specialists who will be ready to use cutting-edge science achievements in medical practice.