Questioning the preclinical paradigm: natural, extreme biology as an alternative discovery platform

The pace at which science continues to advance is astonishing. From cosmology, microprocessors, structural engineering, and DNA sequencing our lives are continually affected by science-based technology. However, progress in treating human ailments, especially age-related conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease, moves at a relative snail's pace. Given that the amount of investment is not disproportionately low, one has to question why our hopes for the development of efficacious drugs for such grievous illnesses have been frustratingly unrealized. Here we discuss one aspect of drug development –rodent models – and propose an alternative approach to discovery research rooted in evolutionary experimentation. Our goal is to accelerate the conversation around how we can move towards more translative preclinical work.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Aging

• Publication date

  2014-11-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.18632/AGING.100704PMID 25553771PMCID 4276785
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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