External validity in translational biomedicine: understanding the conditions enabling the cause to have an effect

Abstract A spectre is haunting biomedical research: It appears that a substantial fraction of published research results cannot be reproduced, while spectacularly successful novel treatments developed in experimental models of disease too often fail in clinical trials. A reproducibility crisis has b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ulrich Dirnagl, Alexandra Bannach‐Brown, Sarah McCann
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer Nature 2021-12-01
Series:EMBO Molecular Medicine
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.202114334
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Summary:Abstract A spectre is haunting biomedical research: It appears that a substantial fraction of published research results cannot be reproduced, while spectacularly successful novel treatments developed in experimental models of disease too often fail in clinical trials. A reproducibility crisis has been proclaimed, and bench‐to‐bedside translation appears to be lost in a “valley of death”. Both predicaments, non‐reproducibility and translational roadblocks, are connected: Why should we expect to successfully “trans‐late” results to humans, if already “cis‐lation”—that is, the generalization from one experimental setting to an identical or fairly similar one—often fails?
ISSN:1757-4676
1757-4684