TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY: AN ITALIAN EXPERIENCE

In recent years the explosion of molecular biology has shown that this discipline, often confined to basic research area, occupies an important place in surgical research. The impact on clinical practice varies from the analysis of genetic risk of cancer in polyposis colic familiar and unfamiliar to the application of transgenic technologies in xenotransplants. Therefore, watching to this shocking change of perspective, is it enough to be good "surgeons" focusing only on the quality of care? Or worth equipping and accept the challenge acting in an integrated research system? How much can the strong practical experience of the surgical disciplines improve the theoretical approaches of the basic sciences? Can the privileged relationship of the surgeon with the patient help to humanize the research interpreting the deepest need of the person? Can the surgeon help to drive the translational research toward useful results in the era of genomics and proteomics? All these questions converge toward the conclusions that in the future academic surgeons will have a key role in the development of translational research program and the surgical community needs to re-address our own vision of research. The present thesis aim to illustrate how has been developed the idea of the Laboratory of Translational Surgery, what has been realized, the projects achieved and those are still in progress. This represent a first step towards a different idea of research in the italian departments of surgery, but certainly the process cannot be stopped and in the future this reality will grow through new ideas and people.