Goldberg says the structure to translate basic science discoveries in animal models into treatments for people is already in place at the School of Medicine.

The Hope Center collaborates with human translational research groups and clinical disease groups such as the Stroke Center and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Although many investigators in the Hope Center are physician-scientists who see patients, these groups provide researchers with additional clinical information.

The Hope Center also is teaching a graduate-level course, Neurobiology of Disease, which gives laboratory scientists a chance to learn about the diseases they’re studying and meet patients. “Many of the graduate students working on Alzheimer’s disease have never met someone with the disease,” Goldberg says.

In the past, development of therapies for neurodegenerative diseases has been slowed by a lack of knowledge about the cellular and molecular causes of these disorders, Goldberg says. “But I think it’s a promising time because we know so much more. The Hope Center can help by removing barriers to translational research, so that scientists who really want to find advances in treatment will have access to the expertise, facilities, collaboration, and, ultimately, the funding to make that possible.”

Diane Duke Williams is a free-lance writer based in St. Louis.