Why translate?
In the last 100 years, biological and medical sciences have seen the greatest advances. Even as of today, new discoveries are brought to light. As they speed up science in general, define molecular interactions, identify genetic mechanisms, elucidate metabolic pathways, only relative few discoveries are able to emphasize the direct relevance for the human organism.
Relevance basic science
This is not to say that studies that have not been performed in humans are of lesser value. In contrast: most of the important steps that we have made throughout the history of biomedical science, come from in vitro work, or studies with smaller or larger animals. These have laid the cornerstones of our current biomedical knowledge and therapies as we know them.
Translating
And translating basic data to the human organism is a challenge. Definite conclusions are difficult to draw. Evidence often comes in associations and not causality. Human studies can be difficult to perform because of ethics and invasive methods. Human studies can be difficult because enzyme systems or molecular mechanisms are different than these found in other species. Or because of differences in day-night rhythm. Translating metabolism aims to combine basic and human studies to translate what we think might be important. This is how we feel biomedical progress should be made.