{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr2-preclinical-negative-registry","kind":"idea","name":"A registry for preclinical experiments that did not work","aka":[],"tldr":"Most lab experiments that fail are never written up, so other labs repeat them. A simple, structured registry with a citable record for each failed experiment would stop the waste.","summary":"Negative preclinical findings (a drug that did not work in a model, a target that did not validate, a biomarker that did not predict) have no home. A registry with minimal structured fields (target, model, intervention, readout, result, methods link, raw data), each with a DOI, and integrated into the major databases, would make failures findable. Funders would require deposit for supported projects.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Failures are hidden): Anderson et al., Compliance with results reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov (NEJM 2015)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1409364"}],"tags":[],"related":["pubmed-europepmc","open-targets","idea-tr2-target-failure-index"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-negative-results","b-reproducibility"],"keyPapers":["paper-anderson-n-engl-j-med"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Within three years, at least 20% of active oncology labs in participating institutions deposit at least one record per year, and surveyed researchers report avoiding at least one planned experiment because of a registry entry.","rationale":"The gene-target level bias is enormous: a handful of targets attract most papers, partly because negative results on them are invisible. Registries with low friction (such as bioRxiv for preprints) achieved rapid adoption once norms shifted.","test":"Launch with three funders requiring deposit; measure deposits, views and self-reported behaviour change after two years.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"research","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-preclinical-negative-registry/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"},{"id":"pubmed-europepmc","kind":"collection","name":"PubMed & Europe PMC","route":"/collections/pubmed-europepmc/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-tr2-negative-results-journal","kind":"idea","name":"A funder-backed, indexed journal of negative and inconclusive cancer results","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-negative-results-journal/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-target-failure-index","kind":"idea","name":"A target de-risking index that counts failures as well as successes","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-target-failure-index/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-replication-bounties","kind":"idea","name":"Bounties for documented failed replications of high-impact findings","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-replication-bounties/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-null-result-reporting","kind":"idea","name":"Grant progress reports must list what did not work","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-null-result-reporting/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-preclinical-living-reviews","kind":"idea","name":"Living systematic reviews of animal and organoid evidence before every new trial","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-preclinical-living-reviews/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-writeup-grants","kind":"idea","name":"Small grants that pay scientists to write up abandoned projects","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-writeup-grants/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-negative-results","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Failures are hidden","route":"/bottlenecks/b-negative-results/"},{"id":"b-reproducibility","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Preclinical results do not reproduce","route":"/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-anderson-n-engl-j-med","kind":"paper","name":"Compliance with results reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov","route":"/key-papers/paper-anderson-n-engl-j-med/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"drug-discovery-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Drug discovery roadmap: screening in mice → maps of dependency → designing in silico","route":"/roadmaps/drug-discovery-roadmap/"}]}}