Weill Cornell HIV Pioneer to Head Prestigious 90-Year-Old Publication, Formerly the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine
NEW YORK (June 22, 2006) -- Starting in July, pioneering and award-winning HIV/AIDS researcher Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York City, will take over as editor-in-chief of the newly christened journal Translational Research.
The well-respected monthly is the official journal of the Central Society for Clinical Research, and has been published for the past 90 years under its former title, the Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine.
"Dr. Laurence's appointment reflects the strong commitment he and others at Weill Cornell place on translational medicine, with breakthroughs in the lab leading to practical applications in the clinical setting. I look forward to the journal's evolution under his expert care," says Dr. Ralph Nachman, chairman and Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
"I couldn't be more proud to head such a prestigious journal at this dynamic point in the history of medical research," adds Dr. Laurence, who is professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Weill Cornell and attending physician and infectious disease authority at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
"The journal's name change reflects the scientific establishment's new focus on bench-to-bedside research -- making sure that discoveries in the laboratory are quickly and easily 'translated' to therapies that are of real benefit to patients," says Dr. Laurence, who is also director of Weill Cornell's Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research.
Dr. Laurence's background -- both as the editor of two respected AIDS journals and as a renowned researcher -- makes him uniquely qualified to head Translational Research.
Sixteen years ago he started The AIDS Reader, which rapidly became the largest-circulation AIDS journal in the world. Dr. Laurence also took over as editor-in-chief of AIDS Patient Care and STDs in 1996, quadrupling its "science-citation index" (a marker of the journal's academic influence) during his first four years at the helm.
As a researcher focused on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Laurence worked with AIDS pioneer Dr. Luc Montagnier in the early 1980s and was lead author on the seminal New England Journal of Medicine study in 1984, which pinpointed HIV as the cause of AIDS and defined a carrier state for the virus.
Dr. Laurence has since published more than 125 academic papers on the subject and now serves as senior scientific consultant for The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), co-founded by Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Dr. Mathilde Krim. He recently published Medical Adherence in HIV/AIDS, a compendium of articles on the challenges of AIDS medication adherence, and is a recipient of the American Heart Association's Clinician-Scientist Award.
A background in HIV/AIDS may be the perfect training for an editor of a journal focused on translational research, Dr. Laurence says.
"We learned very early in the epidemic that we no longer had the luxury of time, in terms of moving drugs from the discovery phase to clinical application -- too many patients were dying in the interim," he explains. "The older model just wasn't working. Even today, it can sometimes take up to 15 years for a drug to make it to market. In contrast, some AIDS drugs have gone from first clinical testing to FDA approval in less than 18 months."
That kind of research model, which involves more direct communication between lab scientists and clinicians, will be the prime focus of Translational Research.
"In fact, our inaugural July issue will include a guest editorial by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, director of the NIH, who argues that we need to bring people working in these two worlds -- the lab and the clinic -- much closer together, so that the public understands that research dollars earmarked for basic science are bringing tangible rewards," Dr. Laurence says.
Thanks to a new initiative aimed at expanding the journal's influence, that message may soon reach more researchers and budding researchers, Dr. Laurence adds.
"We're collaborating right now with the NIH to give the journal out free to everyone covered by the K-30 Awards, the Institutes' new educational system for scientists in translational research," he explains. "That should be a win-win for everyone -- raising the profile of Translational Research, while offering scientists and clinicians a dynamic new forum for research and discussion."
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