TRB Guest Seminar – Thomas Schaer
Click here to register.
Abstract: Translation research in an academic environment depends on a support system — people, goals, models, partnerships, and infrastructures — that will push promising basic science and technology projects forward into the clinic. To make translational medicine work, all these stakeholders with different perspectives must work in concert. That requires novel, non-conventional collaboration models emphasizing the sharing of common goals, with the patient’s needs as the overarching goal. The output of translational medicine depends on how well the process of translation is managed while keeping the key characteristics for successful translation in mind from the research start to market authorization. This talk reviews challenges, failures, and successes using animal models supporting medical translation from pilot studies to pivotal trials for regulatory submissions in an academic environment.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Thomas P. Schaer is a veterinary surgeon and clinician-scientist, constantly exploring questions at the fringe of unmet clinical needs. He built a program for medical translation at Penn Vet New Bolton Center. Entirely self-funded, this platform started in 2005 from the ground up to create an ecosystem for multidisciplinary collaboration and the mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students in veterinary surgery and the translational sciences. The central theme of these activities focuses on “Musculoskeletal Tissue Injury and Repair” and the strive toward clinically relevant animal models. This multidisciplinary ecosystem has emerged as a recognized home for translational research using animal models across the Penn campus and as a technical and intellectual resource for the broader Philadelphia community and beyond.