title: From the bench to bedside to babies: translational medicine made possible by funding multidisciplinary team science.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In 2005, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) called upon the scientific community to identify the most intractable problems in science and medicine and describe how we would solve these problems using teams.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our group was one of 8 research communities awarded an 'interdisciplinary research consortium (IRC) grant.' Using the infrastructure of this large, multi-institute grant and a team science approach, we set out to solve the problem of fertility loss in young female cancer patients-work that was not easily funded through other mechanisms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The word 'oncofertility' was coined specifically for the IRC to reflect the intimate partnership between oncology care and fertility care for these patients-two disciplines that would no longer function at arms' length, but as an integrated unit. Catalyzed by the IRC funding mechanism, interdisciplinary teams worked together in unique ways to create a 'bench to bedside to baby' outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The grant has now ended, and remarkably, so have the most intractable parts of the original problem. As we look back on what worked and look forward to tackling the next set of fertility-related questions, we are confident that this very special NIH funding mechanism made a meaningful difference in the lives of women and their future children. NIH and the public would be well-served by supporting clinical problem-based, multidisciplinary team science approaches to catalyze fundamental biomedical breakthroughs and create new intellectual environments in which changes in clinical practice and standard of care can be implemented.
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, tkw@northwestern.edu.
authors: Teresa K
authors: TK
authors: Woodruff
mesh_terms: D005298:Fertility; D059247:Fertility Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009369:Neoplasms; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D012586:Science / Q000191:economics*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States
references: Cancer Treat Res. 2010;156:111-34
references: 20811829
references: Obstet Gynecol Int. 2012;2012:695041
references: 23125860
references: Cancer Treat Res. 2010;156:v-vii
references: 21213472
references: J Adolesc Health. 2009 Apr;44(4):394-400
references: 19306799
references: Cancer Treat Res. 2010;156:321-44
references: 20811845
references: Biol Reprod. 2011 Apr;84(4):689-97
references: 21123815
references: Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2010 Aug;7(8):466-75
references: 20498666
references: Hum Fertil (Camb). 2013 Mar;16(1):54-8
references: 23509856
references: J Clin Oncol. 2009 Dec 10;27(35):5952-7
references: 19826115
references: Tissue Eng. 2006 Oct;12(10):2739-46
references: 17518643
references: Fertil Steril. 2010 Oct;94(5):1652-6
references: 19945099
references: J Cancer Surviv. 2007 Jun;1(2):146-55
references: 18648955
references: Am J Bioeth. 2008 Jun;8(6):21-9
references: 18726776
references: Am J Bioeth. 2011 Mar;11(3):W1-2
references: 21400373
references: Future Oncol. 2012 May;8(5):595-608
references: 22646773
references: Hum Reprod. 2009 Oct;24(10):2531-40
references: 19597190
references: J Assist Reprod Genet. 2011 Mar;28(3):269-77
references: 21110080
references: Hum Reprod. 2011 May;26(5):1061-72
references: 21362681
references: J Clin Oncol. 2010 Mar 10;28(8):1284-6
references: 20142588
references: Hum Reprod Update. 2010 Jul-Aug;16(4):395-414
references: 20124287
references: Int J Dev Biol. 2012;56(10-12):901-7
references: 23417412
references: J Clin Oncol. 2012 Jun 10;30(17):2147-53
references: 22585695
references: Cancer. 2012 Sep 15;118(18):4579-88
references: 22451228
references: Reproduction. 2010 Nov;140(5):685-97
references: 20729335