This project adopts a historically informed philosophy of science perspective to explore methods that address the challenge of matching experimental targets with real-world applications. It aims to characterize "scoping methods," which evaluate how well interventions align with disease classifications.

The project will analyze various methods, including pharmacoepidemiological research, computational assessments, network neuroscience, and reverse clinical trials. Reverse translation, where treatments tested in humans are retested in animal models, is a key focus.

The project's hypothesis is that scoping methods can help to provide insights into pathophysiological mechanisms and improve the matching of models to real-world targets, and that a better understanding of this class of methods will provide insights for planning and evaluating translational research. The findings may also influence research funding policies.

This project will be primarily hosted at the University of Bielefeld with Lara, and secondments are planned with Andrea Burden at ETH Zurich and Linda at the AUMC in Amsterdam. 

You can find out more about Lara’s research here: Bielefeld History and Philosophy of Medicine Group: www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/geschichtswissenschaft/abteilung/arbeitsbereiche/geschichte-medizin/personen/