{"doi":"10.1093/clinchem/hvac074","title":"Critical Roles of Clinical Laboratorians in Translational Research and Applied Sciences—Experts’ Insights and Experiences","abstract":"Clinical laboratorians have been at the forefront of translating science into clinical practice, playing crucial roles in the development of techniques, instrumentation, and technologies that aid in patient care. Some noteworthy advances by laboratorians include the discovery of the Jaffe method for measuring creatinine, the Folin-Wu method for determining blood glucose concentrations, and Van-Slyke’s volumetric carbon dioxide gas analysis instrument. More recently, laboratorians have been instrumental in the development of assays for the detection of myocardial injury, informatics-based approaches for detecting laboratory error, and have stood at the forefront of omics-based approaches to diagnosis. In short, clinical laboratorians have been essential for the advancement of medicine and for providing timely, accurate diagnoses of medical conditions. The modern-day clinical laboratory looks dramatically different from labs of previous eras. The vast majority of laboratory-developed tests have been replaced with U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared instruments and assays. The implementation of laboratory automation has further mystified the testing process and has removed assay development from the hands of the laboratorian. The new laboratory structure has also necessitated a change in how laboratory directors are trained, requiring a greater emphasis on regulation and management, at times to the detriment of research and method development. Even in academic institutions, clinical laboratorians have limited protected time for research. Nonetheless, laboratory directors remain in a distinct position to impact patient care and to bridge the gap between research and clinical application due to their unique understanding of unmet clinical needs and technical expertise in laboratory testing. The ever-changing landscape of the clinical laboratory and increasingly clinical/managerial role raises important questions about the future of the clinical laboratorian in research, development, and translation of laboratory testing. Furthermore, it requires that new generations of clinical laboratorians are trained and prepared to meet these needs. In this Q&A, international experts share their experiences building translational research programs and establishing leadership in scientific subspecialties with the goal of determining the future role of the clinical laboratorian in translational research. Ann Gronowski: My research program is pretty modest compared to others, in terms of size and dollars. I would say that I have had three main areas of focus: (a) diagnostics for maternal–fetal medicine; (b) general laboratory medicine; and, (c) industry-sponsored projects. My passion is maternal–fetal medicine and this is the area in which I have published the most and the area for which I have written small grants and requested funding. I have undertaken some industry sponsored projects that have allowed me to accrue money that funds some of my own hypothesis-driven projects. The general laboratory medicine-based projects have their roots in interesting observations made during clinical service responsibilities. These interesting observations have informed my maternal–fetal medicine research and also lead to seemingly unrelated areas of research. For example, we recently published a study that examined the number and kinds of radioactive patient samples received by our hospital core laboratory annually. This grew out of a single event that occurred in the lab. It has resulted in improved safety for our lab staff, and improved communications with our radiation safety and oncology faculty, in addition to a publication. Fred Apple: I owe my success in clinical chemistry to my mentors, Drs. Jack Ladenson, David Dietzler, and Jay MacDonald, from my clinical chemistry fellowship training. Each provided doors to walk through and allowed me to pursue my passions in muscle biochemistry and toxicology. They also taught me that first and foremost was ","journal":"Clinical Chemistry","year":2022,"id":308398,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9539,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":561975,"name":"Zhen Zhao","orcid":"0000-0002-9742-5982","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1003306,"name":"Experts Fred Apple","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1002954,"name":"Paul Collinson","orcid":"0000-0002-7000-5996","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":635935,"name":"Mari L. DeMarco","orcid":"0000-0001-9281-9547","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":829089,"name":"Ann M. Gronowski","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":341570,"name":"David B. Sacks","orcid":"0000-0003-3100-0735","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":949969,"name":"Yusheng Zhu","orcid":"0000-0002-0666-7127","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1003305,"name":"Moderators Christopher Farnsworth","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:33:03.486542Z","pmid":"35617137","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}