Questions

How is our approach different?

Scientific principles of nervous system injury and repair are shared by many different neurological disorders. This vision has led to creation of a research environment which fosters outstanding interdisciplinary collaboration in disease-focused research. When thinking of our approach, think of the movie, “Field of Dreams.”

In the traditional model, an “all-star” research expert in a disease has an idea for a therapy and then seeks funding to pursue it. If funding is found and the research suggests moving on to the next step, the therapy is tested in animals, assuming that an animal model has been developed and access can be gained to the animals. The final step is to assess the results of the work, which takes time and a different set of specialized skills. This costly and labor-intensive approach does very little to inspire any researcher to pursue research on rare disorders or consider the relevance of the work outside the realm of the specialty area.

At The Hope Center, we believe that “if we build it, they will come.” That means our philosophy is based on providing the enabling technologies and support systems (specialized equipment, human expertise, etc.) as well as the process for collaboration that will inspire researchers from a variety of scientific disciplines to bring their projects to the Hope Center, where those projects will be applied to the realm of neurological disorders. This translational approach is our “field of dreams.”

Many Washington University scientists are leading authorities in fields such as molecular biology or engineering but may have little direct experience with problems of clinical diseases. To promote translational research, the Center encourages collaboration with disease-focused investigators, and provides access to key core resources and animal models.