Basic science understanding

The modulation of transcription nicely demonstrates how results of basic science can be translated into medical application. These few examples of drugs in successful use stimulate at the same time the intensive study of gaps in our understanding of transcriptional control, hoping to find new specific ways of interference. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides support to all the basic sciences and engineering in universities. NSF support of chemistry is very important, both the support directed to fundamental research initiated by individual investigators and the research done in research centers such as those aimed at developing new materials or at understanding and improving the environment. The support is critical, but more is needed for the chemistry division of NSF to achieve its objectives.10 Considering the importance of basic and applied chemistry and chemical engineering to the economic future of the United States, it seems that an increase in the ability of NSF to support fundamental and applied chemical science is warranted. 

The overview report will identify recent advances and current challenges in fundamental understanding of the basic science, and it will explore the impact beyond the chemical sciences that these advances have had in the past. It will also explore the possibilities for such impact in the future, recognizing that such developments are frequently serendipitous. Issues to be addressed include ... 

Since the first edition of this series, we have witnessed the birth of molecular medicine, using biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics to diagnose and treat disease. Consequently, the basic sciences are becoming more important to the practice of medicine. This puts a new pressure on the student—to understand the basis of molecular medicine and the molecular sciences. I still think that it s easier to remember things that you understand, things that make sense. That s the idea behind the Basic Concepts series and that s why I have been so pleased with the expansion of the Basic Concepts series beyond Biochemistry. 

We need to have drugs, antidotes, and cures for the weapons of mass destruction that terrorists are likely to use. To develop medicinal countermeasures, the basic science involved must first be understood. For both chemical and biological weapons, the process of molecular recognition by elements of the human body is of utmost importance. However, we do not have a clear understanding of protein surface interactions, the relationship of genes to protein function, and how viruses infect and replicate. All of these processes are chemical in nature and caimot be solved without knowledge of the chemical sciences. 

Before turning to the principles involved, the reader should be aware of certain terminology which is basic to understanding the material presented in later chapters. Science is full of words which have very different connotations in the jargon of different disciplines. The present book is about particles and the term particle needs to be defined carefully within our context, to distinguish it from the way in which the nuclear physicist, for example, might use the word. For our purposes a particle is a self-contained body with maximum dimension... 

University of Texas Addiction Science Research and Education Center. Understanding Addiction Basic Science Information. Available online. URL http //www.utexas.edu/research/asrec/addiction.html. Accessed May 28,2009. This Web page provides an abimdance of information on neurons, neurotransmitters—especially dopamine— and drugs that influence the transmission process. 

The basic science behind nucleation and forces between materials have been treated in Chapter 1. For those interested in this section, it is assumed that this basic science is (more or less, at least) understood. However, the basics treated in Chapter 1, while important to an understanding of film (as opposed to isolated crystal) formation, are not enongh by themselves to provide a phenomenological explanation of film formation. We would ideally like to be able to predict in advance, from fundamental principles, whether a particular bath formulation will result in adherent films or not. We cannot However, if we cannot reliably predict adhesion, we can at least choose conditions so that the probability of adhesion is good. 

Volume III, Pharmacology and Therapy, addresses developments in basic science, translational and clinical research that are underway to bring stem cell research to therapy, particularly for the treatment of Batten s diseases, graft-versus-host disease and adenosine deaminase deficiency. This volume covers the importance of stem cell research for the understanding of drug activities and design. It also addresses the ethical issues and constraints involved in stem cell research, and its commercial applications. 

The rapid development has outsUippcd basic understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying the techniques. It must be recognized, however, that the optimal exploitation of microstmctural technology, the maximization of performance, yields, and utilization of available silicon area will depend on a detailed interpretation of each step in fabrication as a chemical or physical process. Furthermore, unanticipated phenomena are encountered and inject surprises into basic science. A new interdisciplinary field of applied science has emerged. 

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