Northwest Association for Biomedical Research

Biomedical Research

Understanding the Research Process

What defines biomedical research? How do scientists ensure that new drugs are safe? What factors must be considered before enrolling patients in a clinical trial? How long does it take to develop new drugs? The sites below have been especially selected to address these issues and other ones related to the research process.

Overviews of the Biomedical Research Process

What Exactly is Biomedical Research?
Our North Carolina Affiliate, NCABR, has compiled a useful overview explaining what biomedical research is and how it works.

Diagram of the research process (pdf file) from the Minnesota Chapter of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science.

Clinical Trials in Humans

ClinicalTrials.Gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is a service of the National Institutes of Health. The Understanding Clinical Trials portion of the site provides an extremely comprehensive outline of all aspects of clinical trials.

Food and Drug Administration
Basic questions and answers, information on protection of human subjects, and overview articles about clinical trials.
The FDA also provides a site where a patient with cancer of the lymph system describes her experiences in a clinical trial: Understanding clinical trials from a patients’ perspective

Genentech: Clinical Trial Information
Summarizes what a clinical trial is, how trials proceed, and other related topics from the biotechnology company Genentech. Includes a glossary.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center – Clinical Trials
The MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas provides a helpful resource for understanding many facets of clinical trials.

The National Cancer Institute
The NCI offers a wealth of information on clinical trials. Especially valuable are the Understanding Clinical Trials section and the Resources section. Be sure to check out the many free publications available, as well as the power point presentations on clinical trials available on-line.

Research and Drug Development

Beyond Discovery: The Path from Research to Human Benefit
Real life case studies illustrate how recent medical and technological advances arose from basic laboratory research. Some of the areas covered are Hepatitis B, polymers, designer seeds, and human gene testing.

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration

The CDER Handbook
The handbook offers an excellent review of the drug development process. Follow the New Drug Development and Review link to view 3 interactive charts summarizing the process in a visual way.

From Test Tube to Patient
Published in 1995, but still contains highly useful information (especially the Laboratory and Animal Studies section). A 1999 version is available as a pdf file.

Drug Approval Times
The CDER also provides an interesting summary of drug approval times.

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The NWABR web site was made possible by funding from the National Center for Research
Resources and the National Institutes of Health through a Science Education Partnership Award.