Hypothesis-driven research

Omic and hypothesis-driven research in the molecular pharmacology of cancer, Curr. Opinion Pharmacol., 2, 361-365, 2002. 

Numerous antidepressants were synthesized, developed and marketed on the basis of the serotonin hypothesis. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are similarly effective as the older tricyclic antidepressants, but have the advantage of being less toxic and not inducing anticholinergically mediated side effects (Chapter 1). From the scientific point of view1 they represent an example of mechanistic, hypothesis-driven research and development in psychopharmacology (Chapter 2). 

Data-driven or systems approaches have to rely on discovery science and hypothesis-driven research in individual fields of the life sciences and are complementary to them. Without knowledge gained with reductionist approaches, interpretation of data with the systems approach is not feasible. 

Microarrays are observed as tools for descriptive research and not for hypothesis-driven research, which is primarily driven to answer specihc questions related to a known set of molecules. However, most microarray-based studies do have clear objectives and are designed to answer well-defined questions. The plan for specimen selection should follow from the objectives of the microarray study. Studies may either be exploratory, whose results should be confirmed, or designed to test various models in which case, the experiments have to be designed in a focused manner [126]. 

The use of immunoaffinity purification as a sample preparation method for downstream proteomics applications is emerging for applications involving identification of proteins in functional complexes and global identification of modified proteins. This approach allows investigators to use proteomics approaches to address hypothesis-driven research questions. Although a detailed protocol was presented here, it should be noted that each sample type and antibody will require optimization of the protocol—different buffers may work better for lysis, antibodies may bind more or less... 

Commission 2004 Knudsen 2004, as cited in ECETOC 2005). Research projects typically are hypothesis-driven and geared to the collection of data to link health outcomes causally to exposures (ECETOC 2005). 

Toxicological Sciences, the official SOT journal, is distributed monthly in print and electronically. The journal publishes premier peer-reviewed, hypothesis-driven, original research articles that are broadly relevant to assessing the potentially adverse health effects resulting from exposure of humans or animals to chemicals, drugs, natural products, or synthetic materials. Studies may involve experimental animals or human subjects, or they may focus on in vitro methods or alternatives to the use of experimental animals. Sections include original research, reviews, forum articles on policy or research issues, editorials, letters to the editor, and supplementary data guidelines. 

The gradual change from hypothesis-driven to discovery-based research also weakens the dominance of reductionism that we have observed in biology in the past. The reductionist approach thinks of a biological system as decomposed into subsystems that are studied independently. The finer the decomposition, the smaller the subsystem and the easier it is to form... 

Until recently, nutritional research was strongly hypothesis-driven and based on preidentified markers and benefits. We are now witnessing a movement towards more exploratory, hypothesis generating omics approaches, which assess living organisms in a holistic manner. From all omics approaches, metabonomics is the one that is closest to the phenot) e. Thus, the nutritional field developed a strong interest in metabonomics as... 

Much of the denial of funding in the UK, for example, is justified explicitly on the basis that funding agencies like the National Environmental Research Council are concerned with support for hypothesis-driven science only (see House of Lords, 2002). Like it or not, as E.O. Wilson (2003) has noted ... 

All scientists agree that chemistry is the basis of life and with that preamble it seems almost certain that the first cells one sees in the Hadean stones are the first ones on earth their ancestors were the heat- and light-driven bio-reactors. The Darwinians see the same cells but because the (in principle unprovable) single origin is a creed of the model, they postulate that a single ancestor must have lived much earlier and mutated into all of the cells that are visible at this horizon. At this point the old hypothesis is defeated by the researchers in planetary sciences who do not see any biology-time before the time of the first massive invasion of the earth crust by cells. The hell fire of global accretion was too close for descent with variation . 

---