Guidelines to improve animal study design and reproducibility for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: For funders and researchers

Abstract

The reproducibility of laboratory experiments is fundamental to the scientific process. There have been increasing reports regarding challenges in reproducing and translating preclinical experiments in animal models. In Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, there have been similar reports and growing interest from funding organizations, researchers, and the broader scientific community to set parameters around experimental design, statistical power, and reporting requirements. A number of efforts in recent years have attempted to develop standard guidelines; however, these have not yet been widely implemented by researchers or by funding agencies. A workgroup of the International Alzheimer's disease Research Funder Consortium, a group of over 30 research funding agencies from around the world, worked to compile the best practices identified in these prior efforts for preclinical biomedical research. This article represents a consensus of this work group's review and includes recommendations for researchers and funding agencies on designing, performing, reviewing, and funding preclinical research studies.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Animal models; Drug development; Preclinical; Reproducibility.