Intensivist Alexander Vlaar was recently appointed professor of Translational Intensive Care Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam (UvA-Amsterdam UMC). Translational means as much as 'the whole area from basic laboratory research to applications in the clinic and vice versa'. Vlaar is therefore concerned with the translation from practice to laboratory and from laboratory to practice. With his chair, he does not focus on a single syndrome, but on several areas within intensive care.