Introduction: As the demand for demonstrable societal benefit in research grows, basic scientists face a recurring challenge: how do we systematically track and demonstrate the translational impact of our foundational work? Traditional bibliometrics fall short of capturing real-world clinical applications, making it difficult for researchers to trace -- and take credit for -- how their early discoveries contribute to improved health outcomes.

Methods: We introduce Through.bio to solve this problem at scale. Our system traces the lineage of biomedical innovation by constructing robust provenance networks that link scientific publications in PubMed to clinical trials and FDA approvals. Already validated on a variety of high-profile genomics papers, the system is actively scaling to process over 39 million publications and 550,000 clinical studies.

Conclusion: By uncovering previously undocumented links between basic bench research and modern therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices, Through.bio empowers scientists to move beyond basic citation metrics. It enables researchers to build auditable, evidence-based narratives of their translational impact -- providing critical data to inform research evaluation, strengthen grant proposals, and justify continued investment in foundational science. The tool is available at https://through.bio.