The CANDO Process

Every potential project undergoes a mandatory, multi-stage strategic review before it becomes a CANDO study.

Alignment & Impact:

A study must first pass a rigorous scoring process to ensure it helps a large patient population and substantially moves the needle on current scientific knowledge.

Design Consultation

Our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) collaborates to refine the budget and protocol, ensuring the study is perfectly optimized for a multi-center environment.

Supermajority Standard

No study moves forward without a 75% Supermajority vote from our board. This ensures that only the most ethical, feasible, and high-potential projects receive the CANDO seal of approval.

One Protocol, Many Sites

Once approved, every participating university follows a single, standardized protocol. This level of discipline ensures that data collected in one site is perfectly compatible with data from another, creating a large, unified dataset that a single clinic could never produce alone.

CANDO’s Core Values

  • Scientific Rigor

    We don't take shortcuts. By using validated outcome measures and gold-standard clinical trial protocols, we ensure our findings are accurate and dependable.

  • Transparency & Reproducibility

    We believe in open science. From publishing our protocols to sharing "negative" results, we make our data accessible so the entire scientific community can learn from our work.

  • Uncompromising Animal Welfare

    Our "patient first" philosophy means we exceed regulatory requirements and conduct internal reviews to ensure the safety and comfort of every dog participating in our studies.

  • Collaborative Vision

    We break down the walls between institutions. Our investigators commit to a culture of teamwork, striving for consensus to ensure the best scientific minds are working toward a common goal.

  • Positive Impact

    We focus on research that translates into real-world results. Every study is chosen for its potential to improve the lives of a large population of dogs and to pave the way for human medical breakthroughs.

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