Scientists of Tomorrow at the Frontiers of Cardiovascular Biology 2016 in Florence: translating basic science into clinical practice is the next frontier

Basic science has always been the engine behind the technological evolution of the cardiovascular field. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, cardiovascular research reached the peak of its productivity, with rapid translation of novel ideas from the bench to clinical practice, leading to an impressive enhancement in the quality of life and life expectancy of patients with cardiovascular diseases.1 Although R&D investment in the cardiovascular area by the pharmaceutical industry has declined, there has been a large influx of public investment for cardiovascular basic research in the past years. As reported by the ESC in Cardioscape, at least 876 million euros were awarded for cardiovascular disease research project grants under competitive open funding schemes in the EU over the period of 2010–2012 (http://www.cardioscape.eu/Final-Conference). Despite the progress in understanding and deciphering CV pathology, there has been a decline of successful translation of basic research into clinical practice, with most of the large-scale, randomized clinical trials providing negative results, disproving their original hypotheses born and bred in our basic science labs.2,3 These failures4 underline the complexity of cardiovascular diseases and the need to develop new experimental models to filter the innovative concepts generated in the lab, allowing only the most promising ones to be tested in the clinical setting. It is our responsibility, as scientists, to ensure a successful translation from the lab to humans that, in turn, will realize real progress in clinical cardiovascular medicine; besides, basic research is at the source of the innovation cycle which aims to benefit well-being of the population; therefore, attention to the translation is essential. The new generation of scientists should now take the lead in basic cardiovascular research and come to the fore with original, ground-breaking ideas to further advance the field and drive the identification and development of new therapeutic strategies. Young scientists are well positioned to adapt new technologies, to exploit the power of bioinformatics in omics and other throughput technologies, to further advance the new fields of genomics and epigenetics, to apply newly developed imaging technologies, to translate cell-based regenerative therapies, etc. It is the duty of the current generation of advanced researchers, who led the remarkable progress in the field 10 years ago, to train and support the new scientists to advance in the right direction.