On December 20, an agreement on the establishment of the Translational Medicine Alliance (TMA) was signed at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” in Moscow. The main objective of the newly-formed association is to accelerate the introduction of the most advanced achievements of modern fundamental science into practical healthcare.
The alliance includes the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI",  National Research Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod. National Research Tomsk State University and the Foundation "North-West Center for Strategic Research".  Lobachevsky University was represented at the event by its Rector E.V.Chuprunov, Vice-Rector for Research V.B. Kazantsev and Director of the Institute of Biology and Biomedicine M.V. Vedunova.
The participants of the Alliance will join their efforts in accelerating the development of new medicines. In particular, it is planned to develop and use a unified database of biomarkers, to create a system for monitoring patients at the time of the first drug tests, and to develop computer models for data storage and analysis. Besides, the Alliance will carry out research and provide services in the field of applied R&D.
Pharmaceutical and industrial companies and healthcare institutions will be potential customers of the Alliance that will develop touch technologies, new materials and data processing technologies, as well as technologies for nanotheranostics and neurotechnologies, while research institutes will be its partners in basic research in the biomedical field. It is also planned to create in the framework of the TMA an integrated digital information platform for collecting and computer processing of medical research data. The data will be assembled from member universities of the Alliance and its partner clinics, and the Alliance experts will build models for processing these data. Thus, based on the patients’ test data, it will be possible to quickly and accurately diagnose patients and recommend a personalized treatment regimen.
The Alliance intends to participate in the implementation of the National Technology Initiative as a leading national network center. TMA universities will also open network educational programs for graduate and postgraduate students in some new areas - at the intersection between physics, chemistry, biology and medicine – to train experts capable of using cutting-edge science in the practice of medicine.