Contents

17 October 2012
Vol 4, Issue 156

More From Science Translational Medicine

About The Cover

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ONLINE COVER Research Revisited. As punishment for hubris, King Sisyphus was doomed to an eternity of useless effort: pushing an enormous boulder up a mountain only to watch it roll back down over and over again. Like Sisyphus, researchers in the stroke therapeutic arena have been pushing preclinical boulders uphill, only to have their hopes crushed when clinical trials fail, returning research back to its starting point. In this week's Perspective, Lyden and Lapchak argue that—after more than 1000 failures—it is clear that our methods for translating effective stroke treatments from the laboratory to the clinic do not work and that new preclinical and clinical approaches exist and should be carefully considered. In the related Research Article, Cook et al. describe the results of their preclinical study—conceived outside of the current paradigm—in which nonhuman primates treated with a neuroprotectant after stroke displayed outcomes that correctly anticipated those of a corresponding human trial. Sisyphus by Titian (1549). [CREDIT: WIKIPAINTINGS.ORG]