Preambel

Modern Medicine and the understanding of physiological and pathophysiological phenomena in terms of molecular and cellular bioscience (as e.g.: medical biophysics & biochemistry, cell biology, molecular and cellular physiology, medical genetics) are intimately related. In order to effectively improve human health, scientific discoveries at the molecular and cellular level must be translated into practical application. Typically, such discoveries begin at “the bench” with basic research – then progress to the clinical level, or the patient’s “bedside”. Scientists are increasingly aware that this bench-to-bedside approach of translational molecular and cellular bioscience research is indeed a bidirectional process: basics scientists provide clinicians with new tools for use in patients and for assessment of their impact and on the other side clinical researchers make novel observations about the nature and progression of disease – that often stimulates basic investigations. Translational research, especially at the molecular and cellular level, has proven to be a powerful process that drives the clinical, as well as the preclinical research engine. Therefore, the establishment of a corresponding doctoral school at the Medical University in Graz is timely and required.