These assets are in early development and have not yet advanced to proof-of-concept studies in people.

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Luckily, the strong trend in the industry is to insist, increasingly, on these kinds of proof of concept studies.

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The whole anti-vaccine concept got whipped into a frenzy years ago over studies suggesting that ingredients in vaccines might somehow cause autism.

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The SAG discussion of the concept release in October 2009 highlighted that previous panels and studies had raised the suggestion before, the objections were always the same, and nothing ever came of it.

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"Habitability zones are a nightmarishly complicated concept, " said astrophysicist Patrick Young at Arizona State University, who studies planets' suitability for life.

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At the time, it was fun to speculate which country might be next (Germany had interest in the concept), including whether the US might seriously consider a similar proposal since studies on the issue were already being conducted.

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More direct evidence from studies of experiments with animals and humans, however, suggests that we may have to alter the very concept of what we mean by hearing loss, and that current tests - particularly pure-tone audiometry which measures our ability to perform "pin-drop" hearing - may not be sufficient to pick up the early signs of a decline in hearing function.

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