BioCentury
ARTICLE | Tools & Techniques

Testing animals like humans

How multicenter animal studies could address the 'reproducibility crisis' in preclinical research

September 10, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

A group of six European labs has banded together to test the idea that carrying out preclinical studies more like trials in humans could reduce the variability seen as one of the key facets of the "reproducibility crisis." Using all six teams to perform a multicenter stroke study in animals, the researchers showed an antibody against CD49D could be neuroprotective for a subset of patients with small infarcts. The results suggest the multicenter model could set the stage better for the clinic, but the chances it will catch on depend primarily on whether labs can find the necessary funding.

While the inability to reproduce preclinical results in different labs, and ultimately in the clinic, has been a problem across all biomedical fields, Arthur Liesz, who headed the European consortium, told BioCentury that the lack of translation has been particularly extreme in stroke research, where about 400 compounds have failed clinical trials over the last 35 years. ...