Translational medicine and biomaterials
There is great promise for new scientific and technical breakthroughs, specifically around biomaterials, to address global health challenges. New biomaterials can serve as replacement body parts, reduce healing time, and reduce reliance on antibiotics and the rise of “superbugs.” Biomaterials can be incorporated into sensors that can improve quality of life for those suffering from noncommunicable diseases such as seizures and diabetes as well as detect infections on medical implants. Creating new breakthroughs in biomaterials that make it from “bench to bedside” requires novel innovation ecosystems. In introduction, we discuss the current views and challenges in “translational medicine” as a framework for creating innovation ecosystems and to bring biomaterials from bench to bedside. We highlight many different key areas of biomaterials applications. We then describe how biomaterials should be developed within the translational medicine framework.
