Cool Videos: Accelerating Discoveries Toward Better Health

Posted on August 26th, 2014 by Dr. Francis Collins

One of the biggest challenges in biomedical research today is breaking down the barriers that slow the translation of new scientific discoveries into treatments and cures. Today’s video drives home that point through a parody of the Emmy Award-winning TV series, “Breaking Bad.”

Shot in Albuquerque by the University of New Mexico’s Clinical and Translational Science Center, this film focuses on a dramatic but obviously fictional example of what it takes to move fundamental knowledge about biology into a therapy that can make a difference in a patient’s life. Here’s the plot in a nutshell: “Walter White explains to his class that clinical and translational science is about accelerating basic science to clinical science and then into practice, bringing new discoveries and technology to the people. This parody shows how Walter and Jesse Pinkman bring basic science to clinical practice, and enable a multiple sclerosis (MS) patient to walk again.”

Links:

Clinical & Translational Science Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

Clinical and Translational Science Awards (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/NIH)

NIH Common Fund Video Competition

NIH support: Common Fund; National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences