{"entity":{"id":"idea-moon-independent-replication-institute","kind":"idea","name":"An independent replication institute that re-tests key preclinical cancer findings before trials","aka":[],"tldr":"Many cancer lab results cannot be reproduced, and trials built on them fail. Fund an independent institute that re-runs important experiments before anyone spends millions on humans.","summary":"The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology found that most high-profile preclinical results replicated only partially or not at all. Trials and companies are built on unreplicated findings. The proposal is a funded, independent replication institute with standing capacity in the common cancer model systems, which re-tests findings prioritised by their influence on planned trials or investments, publishes all results, and issues a replication grade that funders, investors and ethics committees can require before first-in-human studies.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Preclinical results do not reproduce): Errington et al., Investigating the replicability of preclinical cancer biology (eLife 2021)","url":"https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71601"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["pdx-models","organoids"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-reproducibility","b-translational-valley"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Replication grading before phase 1 reduces the rate of early trials terminated for lack of efficacy and shifts investment toward findings that replicate.","rationale":"Independent replication is the cheapest insurance against the most expensive failures; it is not done because nobody owns it and careers do not reward it.","test":"Grade 50 findings underlying planned trials; follow the trials for three years and compare outcomes of high- and low-grade findings.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"philanthropy","cost":"medium","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-moon-independent-replication-institute/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"organoids","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived organoids","route":"/technologies/organoids/"},{"id":"pdx-models","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived xenografts","route":"/technologies/pdx-models/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-reproducibility","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Preclinical results do not reproduce","route":"/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/"},{"id":"b-translational-valley","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The valley of death between lab and product","route":"/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/"}]}}