How do we get medicines and treatments that are safe?

 How do we get medicines and treatments that are safe?


Have you ever wondered how taking a pill can take away your migraines, how a machine can take a picture of your bones without even causing you pain or how transparent liquid injected into your body can prevent diseases from reaching you?

All of these things and numerous advances in the field of medicine have been made possible by the extensive research and experiments conducted by the Clinical Investigators in what is known as Translation Research. (“Understanding the Spectrum of Translational Research”)


*picture credits- Harvard Catalyst


What is Translation Research?

Translational research seeks to produce more meaningful, applicable results that directly benefit human health. The goal of translational research is to translate basic science discoveries more quickly and efficiently into practice.(UAMS, Translational Research Institute) They usually go through four phases or T domains in making sure that the new method presented is safe for humans. (“Understanding the Spectrum of Translational Research”)


We see the translation research happening in countless movies but let's explore how much of this is real and how much is just Hollywood magic.


Understanding Translation Research through movies.

Translation research only occurs when there is a need for it, when something urgent is brought to the researcher's attention.

This can be the Dark Seekers in the movie I am Legend, the need to cure your father’s Alzheimer’s in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes or just a casual need to give the humans power to turn invisible in the movie Hollow Man.


*picture owned by- Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Studios



Phases of the Translation Research:


First phase - Animal testing(T0):

In the world of I am Legend humanity is plagued with the disease that turns them into mindless hordes of zombies known as Dark Seekers. Now when the researcher (Dr. Robert Neville) has a disease that needs his urgent attention, we move into the next phase or T0 where a possible drug or vaccine is tested on animals. Dr. Neville uses rats in the movie to test a possible vaccine that might be able to cure the Dark Seekers. 


Rats being used by Dr. Neville.


In the movie Hollow Man we see them using numerous animals, ranging from monkeys to even dogs, to research a new revolutionary process of turning things invisible. 


Gorilla being used in Hollow Man.


In the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we see lead researcher Will Rodman using apes to test a new drug that might be able to cure Alzheimer’s. Apes are usually considered great test subjects as they are biologically one of the most similar animal species to humans. However, this drug does not get to go to the next phases as it failed to show any promising results.

Ape being used to test the experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s Disease.

 

Second and Third Phase - Human Testing(T1) and (T2):

When the tests on the Animals show promising results, we progress on to the next step; testing the treatment on a group of healthy human volunteers or T1. Here it is made sure that the treatment also works on the human subjects and monitored for any side effects. In Hollow Man, the first voluntary human subject was the pioneer of the research, Dr. Sebastian Caine. He is kept in the Lab for weeks to monitor his health and to learn whether his experiment of turning humans invisible has any side effects. Usually this part of the phase has more volunteers carefully selected and usually not the researcher himself.


Sebastian Craine going through the experiment himself.


In the movie I am Legend as there are not many human volunteers alive we see Dr. Neville testing his drug on the Dark Seekers, or the patients suffering from the disease that researchers are interested in. This lies in the T2 domain where the drug is tested on patients who are suffering from the disease on which the research was conducted. 

This part of the phase also in the real world has many more people to be tested and numerous hospitals run in parallel to report back the results


Dark seeker injected with a vaccine to check the effects.



Promiseland- T3 and T4 Domain:


Now when the drug has been tested on animals and has shown promising results on the patients with the disease, we move into the T3 domain. Here the drug is approved by the FDA and researchers use their findings from T2 to teach medical personnel on how to administer the new treatment. The drug is also cross checked with the other treatments available to control the prices. People receiving the drug are also closely monitored to make sure that there aren’t any negative side effects. In the T4 domain the global health is monitored and whole communities are studied to find the origin of the disease. However, Hollywood does not bore you with this stage. In the movie Hollow Man the research is halted after Sebestian Caine goes rogue and like most Hollywood movies ends with big explosions. I am Legend ends with the new vaccine being handed to the remainder of the survivors to be tested on other Dark Seekers, no boring FDA needed. 

I am Legend's original ending.


What about real life?

Real life can be a bit more complicated and requires much more time than the movies. It took us nearly two decades to develop an effective vaccine for polio. Researchers began working on a polio vaccine in the 1930s, but early attempts were unsuccessful. An effective vaccine didn't come around until 1953. (Hickok,2020) Sometimes this can totally depend on the situation, as we were able to produce a Covid 19 vaccine in just 11 months. This was due to certain phases of translation research being done quickly.

Most of these phases are applicable in real life except for the part where the movies do not usually show you the actual time it may take to develop a fully functional vaccine.


The End?

Hollywood tries its best to incorporate real world science in their Sci-Fi movies but if they only showed real world science they won’t be able to sell much of their tickets.

Translation Research is a long process taking around 5 to 10 years and millions of dollars.

So the next time you take a pill to cure your headache, remember that researchers spend countless sleepless nights and countless animals went through difficult experiments to help you sleep better.


                                                                                                                       Author-M. Shahzar Khalique

Bibliography:


Catalyst, Harvard. Understanding the Spectrum of Translational Research. YouTube, 5 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAblbUmyQgk.


“What Is Translational Research? | UAMS Translational Research Institute.” Translational Research Institute, https://tri.uams.edu/about-tri/what-is-translational-research/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.


Hickok, Kimberly. “Who Created the Polio Vaccine? | Live Science.” Livescience.Com, Live Science, 1 June 2020, https://www.livescience.com/polio-virus-vaccine.html.

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