Experimental Design and Reproducibility in Preclinical Animal Studies

José M. Sánchez Morgado, DVM, MSc, PhD, Dip. ECLAM, qualified as veterinarian at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. He is European Veterinary Specialist in Laboratory Animal Medicine and Veterinary Council Ireland recognised Specialist in Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Sánchez Morgado is currently Director of Comparative Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He is also one of the Deputy Editors of the Laboratory Animals journal. Dr. Sánchez Morgado described a case of non-human primate intersex in 2003. Furthermore, he published studies on virulence of canine coronaviruses, Mycobacterium gordonae infection of amphibians, and on diagnostic discrepancies of Helicobacter spp., a common rodent pathogen, by different laboratories, and a new helicobacter diagnostic assay. He has worked as Designated Veterinarian in the UK, Spain and the Republic of Ireland, and has managed two laboratory animal care and user programs.

Aurora Brønstad, DVM, PhD, has been the chief veterinarian and head of the animal facility at University of Bergen (UiB), Norway, since 1999 where she also is responsible for the training in Laboratory Animal Science. She has been involved in several national and international committees, boards and network including the board of the Scand-LAS (2002-2008). She was member of the National Animal Research Authority (2003-2009), Norwegian delegate in Management Committee COST B24: Laboratory animal science and welfare (2004-2009), Nordic infrastructure for Mouse Models (IMM) WG4: Harmonization of procedures in animals handling and welfare (2008-2016), Board member of ILAB since 2009. Co-Chair of AALAS - FELASA working group on harm-benefit analysis of animal studies (2012-2016). Dr. Brønstad is member of the European Society of Laboratory Animal Veterinarians (ESLAV) since 2009 and served as the society's President between 2017-2019. Further, she was appointed as an Ad hoc Consultant for the international Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) (2011-2016) and has also served in the AAALAC Council board since 2016. In 2016 she received the Charles River Award for the work in the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) - Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) working group on harm-benefit analysis of animal studies, providing guidelines to advance the public's understanding why animal models are used in research.

1.       An introduction to reproducibility in the context of animal research 

2.4.    Genetic quality control for mice and rats

2.5.    Mouse and rat phenomics

3.       Animal and environmental factors that influence reproducibility 

4.       Microbiology and Microbiome 

5.       Effects of untreated pain, anesthesia and analgesia in animal experimentation 

6.       Why do we need a statistical experiment design? 

7.       Statistical tests and Sample size calculations 

8.       Design of experiments 

9.       Scholarly Publishing and Scientific Reproducibility 

10.   Systematic reviews 

11.   Planning animal experiments