"If we stop sowing seeds today where will the crops come from tomorrow?"
1 min read 26 February 2023
Professor Ben Hogan, fundamental researcher at Peter Mac and Department of Anatomy and Physiology at Melbourne University, has joined with international experts to highlight the importance of funding basic research in this month’s Nature Cardiovascular Research.
Professor Hogan, Dr Mark Kahn from the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Natasha Harvey from the University of South Australia said “fundamental discovery science has driven innovation and outcomes in cardiovascular medicine for decades, yet funding support in Australia has decreased 23 percent overall between 1992 and 2018.
“The way physicians treat patients with cardiovascular disease today is a direct result of the extensive knowledge gained through fundamental research that spanned generations of researchers,” they said.
Professor Hogan and his co-authors said fundamental research has played a key role in developing new knowledge that has led to changes in medicine and clinical practice over the years.
“Not funding the entire research pipeline from discovery science to clinical translation may have long term costs in the health space,” they said.
“We need fundamental research to provide the seeds for the next major crop to bring about new knowledge and changes to medicine.”
You can access the Nature Cardiovascular Research commentary here.
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