RandoMice, a novel, user-friendly randomization tool in animal research

PLoS One. 2020 Aug 5;15(8):e0237096. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237096. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Careful design of experiments using living organisms (e.g. mice) is of critical importance from both an ethical and a scientific standpoint. Randomization should, whenever possible, be an integral part of such experimental design to reduce bias thereby increasing its reliability and reproducibility. To keep the sample size as low as possible, one might take randomization one step further by controlling for baseline variations in the dependent variable(s) and/or certain known covariates. To give an example, in animal experiments aimed to study atherosclerosis development, one would want to control for baseline characteristics such as plasma triglyceride and total cholesterol levels and body weight. This can be done by first defining blocks to create balance among groups in terms of group size and baseline characteristics, followed by random assignment of the blocks to the various control and intervention groups. In the current study we developed a novel, user-friendly tool that allows users to easily randomize animals into blocks and identify random block divisions that are well-balanced based on given baseline characteristics, making randomization time-efficient and easy-to-use. Here, we present the resulting software tool that we have named RandoMice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Experimentation*
  • Animals
  • Biostatistics / methods*
  • Control Groups
  • Mice
  • Random Allocation
  • Software*

Grants and funding

PCNR (Patrick C.N. Rensen) is supported by the Netherlands CardioVascular Research Initiative: the Dutch Heart Foundation, Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (CVON-GENIUS-II). SK (Sander Kooijman) is supported by the Dutch Heart Foundation (2017T016). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.