PRECLINICAL DEVELOPMENT

Preclinical Development

Preclinical Development

In preclinical research, scientists test their ideas for new biomedical prevention strategies in laboratory experiments or in animals. Clinical research (see below) refers to studies in humans. Preclinical research encompasses everything that happens before a candidate is considered for human testing. Preclinical research answers a range of questions. First, scientists will see if their idea for a new strategy shows any promise. They might take an experimental microbicide and combine it with HIV in a laboratory experiment to see if the microbicide stops HIV activity.

If there's evidence that the experimental strategy works in vitro ...