speciestohuman

Speciestohuman is a conceptual framework used in biology and bioinformatics to describe the process of translating information gathered from non-human species into a human-centric interpretive framework. The term combines "species" and "human" to signal its aim: to enable comparisons of traits, phenotypes, and data across species in a way that supports human health and biology.

It is used in translational research, comparative genomics, and phenotypic data integration. For example, researchers map mouse gene knockout phenotypes to human disease phenotypes to prioritize candidate genes for human disorders, or they normalize physiological measurements across species to facilitate interpretation of model organism data.

Methodology emphasizes cross-species ontologies and standardized vocabularies, such as the Mammalian Phenotype Ontology and Uberon, and computational mappings that assign translation scores or confidence levels to traits. It relies on curated databases, phylogenetic context, and statistical models to account for evolutionary distance and context.

Limitations include fundamental differences in anatomy and physiology between species, the risk of oversimplification, and the possibility of misinterpretation if translation implies direct equivalence rather than similarity. Critics call for transparent methods, validation experiments, and explicit uncertainty estimates.

See also translational research, cross-species ontology, model organisms, comparative genomics.