6th CEN Conference

Session

IS5: Navigating in murky waters: reproducing preclinical findings

20 May 2026, 13:45

Room 1 A

Conveners

IS5: Navigating in murky waters: reproducing preclinical findings

• Frank Konietschke (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin Campus Mitte)

28. Reproducibility and Ethics in Nonclinical Statistics: Building Trust

Helena Geys (Johnson&Johnson Innovative Medicine R&D)

20/05/2026, 13:45

invited lecture

Scientific integrity is the cornerstone of progress in biomedical research. Nowhere is this more critical than in nonclinical settings. Reproducibility – the ability to consistently replicate findings across studies, laboratories and organisations is – is not just a technical requirement. It is a fundamental attribute that underpins trust. As nonclinical research continues to expand in...

10. The Impact of Methodological Rigor on Reproducibility in Biomedical Research

Ulf Toelch (BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research)

20/05/2026, 14:15

oral presentation

Low rates of replicability in early phase biomedical research hinder progress and putatively cause high attrition rates in clinical trials. To improve evidence generation processes, preclinical confirmatory studies and preregistration offer potentially effective strategies. By comparing conduct and outcome of preclinical studies utilizing such strategies, we examined how different degrees of...

30. Planning animal experiments based on estimation error considerations

Dario Zocholl (University of Bonn, Medical Faculty, Institute for Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology)

20/05/2026, 14:35

oral presentation

Animal experiments are often purely exploratory, with little to no data available to support the planning phase. Nonetheless, ethical guidelines demand scientifically sound biometric planning. The experimental designs are typically complex, involving numerous experimental groups and adaptive steps, which complicates statistical planning.

In recent years, statistical aspects of such...

46. Sample Size Minimisation in Preclinical Animal Trials

Nicole Ellenbach (Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Germany and Munich Center for Machine Learning, Munich, Germany)

20/05/2026, 14:55

oral presentation

In preclinical animal studies, researchers often have a certain degree of freedom when it comes to selecting the exact statistical analysis strategy for their experiment. Ideally, this analysis strategy should be specified prior to the experiment (and preregistered, if possible), with sample size planning conducted in accordance with the chosen analytical approach. Sample size calculations...