Thursday 1 May 2008

From the lab to the patient

Molecular Medicine Ireland (MMI) is a new body that promotes the training and placement of clinician scientists .The skills of the doctor and of the scientist are being combined in an emerging new specialist, the clinician researcher. Joining the two specialities in a single individual should help to bring new treatments to the patient and get them out of the lab and into the clinic faster. A key role for MMI is the co-ordination of the health and biomedical research activities undertaken by its members. There is to be a new clinical research centre built at St James's Hospital, which matches existing centres at Beaumont, the Mater and St Vincent's. Linking these together will assist in the undertaking of clinical trials for new discoveries being made in Irish labs.