Accusations of scientific fraud have prompted Mayo Clinic to retract findings from almost eight years of study on an antibody that was thought to have potential cancer-fighting properties. Mayo launched an investigation of research conducted by Suresh Radhakrishnan, PhD, a scientist in Mayo’s department of immunology, after other researchers in his lab were unable to duplicate his results. Much of the research was funded by National Institutes of Health grants. According to Bob Nellis, a Mayo Clinic spokesman, an investigation concluded that Radhakrishnan was responsible for scientific misconduct — allegedly for tampering with another individual’s experiment to alter the outcome. Radhakrishnan, who had worked at Mayo Clinic for almost 10 years, was fired. Radhakrishnan denies the charges but concedes in a comment on a medical blog that “I do not have an explanation for the current loss of effect of the antibody preparation.”

Mayo Clinic has notified scientific journals that published peer-reviewed articles based on the questionable data. An estimated 15 to 17 papers published in nine scientific journals between 2002 and 2009 are being retracted. Commercialization efforts based on the findings also have been halted, and patent applications related to the molecule have been withdrawn. Three patents on molecules and immune response have been issued to Radhakrishnan and Larry Pease, PhD, who chairs Mayo’s department of immunology, but it’s not clear whether the issued patents are related to the research in question.

Source: PostBulletin.com

Posted June 2nd, 2010 under Tech Transfer

Write a comment