preclinical

adjective

pre·​clin·​i·​cal (ˌ)prē-ˈkli-ni-kəl 

1

: of, relating to, or concerned with the period preceding clinical manifestations

2

: of, relating to, or being the period in medical or dental education preceding the clinical study of medicine or dentistry

3

: occurring prior to clinical testing

a preclinical animal study of a new therapy

Examples of preclinical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cases of apparent scientific fraud, such as work underlying Alzheimer’s disease drugs that Science investigated, have added to worries about the integrity of these preclinical studies. —Byjocelyn Kaiser, science.org, 26 Dec. 2024

The Chinese company’s drug is in the preclinical stage and hasn’t entered human trials. —Jeff Marks, CNBC, 18 Dec. 2024

The rest were aimed at human treatments and included preclinical toxicity testing of a pancreatic cancer drug candidate and development of a new islet cell transplantation method for type 1 diabetes. —Bymeredith Wadman, science.org, 28 Oct. 2024

The decrease was primarily driven by cost rationalization measures and the wind-down of preclinical studies. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 14 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1876, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

preclinical

adjective

pre·​clin·​i·​cal (ˈ)prē-ˈklin-i-kəl 

1

a

: of, relating to, concerned with, or being the period preceding clinical manifestations

the preclinical stage of diabetes mellitus

b

: occurring prior to a clinical trial

preclinical animal testing to assess a drug's safety

2

: of, relating to, or being the period in medical or dental education preceding the clinical study of medicine or dentistry

the preclinical years

specifically : of or relating to the early period of prescribed medical or dental study devoted to the basic sciences (as anatomy, physiology, and pathology)

preclinical studies

3

: of, relating to, or being a science basic to medicine

research in the preclinical sciences