Preclinical Meeting Summary

In March of 2019, SmartTots hosted a meeting of preclinical investigators and government agency representatives to discuss the continued need for rigorous preclinical research and the need to establish reporting standards for the field of anaesthetic perinatal neurotoxicity. The group affirmed the importance of preclinical research in answering the remaining questions and encouraged the development of novel and mechanistic approaches. The attendees also agreed that summarizing the benefits and disadvantages of field-specific models, as well as providing guidance for reporting results, would be helpful for designing new experiments and interpreting results across laboratories. An expert opinion report arising from the meeting has been submitted for publication.