David Grahame-Smith

Clinical pharmacology in translation

Long before the word “translation” was introduced into medical science, Grahame-Smith developed a paradigm that showed that clinical pharmacology is a supremely translational discipline, building his scientific philosophy as a basic and clinical pharmacologist on four simple questions:

• Is the medicine properly formulated?

• If taken or administered appropriately, can it reach its sites of action?

• If it does, can it exert its pharmacological actions there?

• If it can, how are those actions translated into benefit for the patient?

The pharmacological principles that link the last two of those questions encompass actions at the molecular level, actions on cells, tissues, and organs, and outcomes in the whole individual. He applied to this simple schema a deep understanding of both biochemical pharmacology and clinical medicine. It was an important tenet to him that basic experiments should inform clinical practice and that clinical results should …