Molecular Insights Provide the Critical Path to Disease Mitigation

The revolution in scientific innovation, driven by the engines of enabling technologies, is increasingly capable of deconstructing complex disease processes for the express purpose of reconstructing patient‐specific solutions. These revelations in biological mechanisms provide the pressure points of opportunity for radical discovery and development to advance modern health care. Principles of mechanism‐based discovery and their translation into therapeutic algorithms will, however, be challenged in the near term by emerging global public health crises that currently have no immediate solutions: chronic diseases, obesity, antibiotic‐resistant infections, dementia, depression. The threat of these pandemics (multiplied in an increasingly aging population), the global burden of disease they represent, and their worldwide assault on human capital underscore the importance of continued and accelerated investments in science‐propelled practice advancement, converting new knowledge into delivery of tangible health solutions. In that context, this annual issue of CPT on therapeutics innovations highlights remarkable recent successes in the discovery–development paradigm translating molecular innovations into diagnostic and therapeutic realities that transform the management of disease, impacting global health. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2013); 95 1, 3–7. doi:10.1038/clpt.2013.211