Abstract

Animal models are powerful and remain essential, but often mislead and are increasingly questioned. Despite their power to reveal mechanisms and track disease from origin to outcome, translation to humans is strikingly poor, and reproducibility often fails. As a consequence, confidence on animal models is eroding. This webinar centres on a single and important issue: validity of animal models. What does an animal result really mean, and when does it stop meaning what we think? We will unpack key dimensions of validity and show how common practices such as over-standardization, poor measures, and ignoring biology and welfare, quietly undermine them, especially when animals are treated as tools rather than patients. We will show how simple changes can improve translation and reproducibility. Not less animal research, but better animal research.

Reference list: 

1. Garner JP. The significance of meaning: why do over 90% of behavioral neuroscience results fail to translate to humans, and what can we do to fix it? ILAR J. 2014;55(3):438–456.

2. Garner JP, Gaskill BN, Weber EM, Ahloy-Dallaire J, Pritchett-Corning KR. Introducing therioepistemology: the study of how knowledge is gained from animal research. Lab Anim (NY). 2017;46(4):103–113.

Learning outcomes

• Define validity of animal models

• Interpret what results really mean

• Identify threats to validity

• Link design to translation

• Apply simple improvements