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Bringing rigour to translational medicine

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-22, 02:31 authored by David Howells, Sena, ES, Macleod, MR
Translational neuroscience is in the doldrums. The stroke research community was among the first to recognize that the motivations inherent in our system of research can cause investigators to take shortcuts, and can introduce bias and reduce generalizability, all of which leads ultimately to the recurrent failure of apparently useful drug candidates in clinical trials. Here, we review the evidence for these problems in stroke research, where they have been most studied, and in other translational research domains, which seem to be bedevilled by the same issues. We argue that better scientific training and simple changes to the way that we fund, assess and publish research findings could reduce wasted investment, speed drug development, and create a healthier research environment. For 'phase III' preclinical studies--that is, those studies that build the final justification for conducting a clinical trial--we argue for a need to apply the same attention to detail, experimental rigour and statistical power in our animal experiments as in the clinical trials themselves.

History

Publication title

Nature reviews. Neurology

Volume

10

Pagination

37-43

ISSN

1759-4758

Department/School

Tasmanian School of Medicine

Publisher

Nature Pub. Group

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the health sciences

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