How to Avoid Bumping into the Translational Roadblock

Translating neuroprotective efficacy from animal studies to clinical trials in humans has been fraught with difficulty. This failure might be because animal studies were falsely positive or clinical trials were falsely negative. Here, I focus on the measures to improve the design, conduct, and reporting of animal studies to maximize both their internal and external validity. These include, but are not limited to, randomization, allocation concealment, blinded assessment of outcome, sample size calculation, and measures to avoid publication bias. In addition, I give a brief introduction to the systematic review and meta-analysis of data from animal experiments.