Stanford College introduced this week that it’ll examine allegations of scientific misconduct involving its president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, after an unbiased pupil information outlet revealed an article detailing suspected issues with analysis papers the place he is listed as an writer.
The Stanford Day by day’s Tuesday, Nov. 29, article explored potential picture manipulation in 4 papers, together with two the place Tessier-Lavigne is the lead writer.
Scientific misconduct professional Elisabeth Bik detailed to the Day by day issues with the papers, together with duplicated and altered photos.
“There look like a number of seen errors in these papers, and a few duplications are suggestive (of) an intention to mislead,” Bik mentioned within the Day by day article.
College spokesperson Dee Mostofi confirmed to this information group on Wednesday that Stanford can be launching its personal evaluate.
“The college will assess the allegations introduced within the Stanford Day by day, in keeping with its regular rigorous method by which allegations of analysis misconduct are reviewed and investigated,” Mostofi wrote in an e-mail. “Within the case of the papers in query that listing President Tessier-Lavigne as an writer, the method shall be overseen by the Board of Trustees.”
Mostofi additionally launched a quote attributed to Tessier-Lavigne, backing Stanford’s investigation.
“Scientific integrity is of the utmost significance each to the college and to me personally,” Tessier-Lavigne mentioned. “I help this course of and can absolutely cooperate with it, and I respect the oversight by the Board of Trustees.”
Within the case of one of many papers, through which Tessier-Lavigne is listed amongst 11 authors, the analysis journal through which it was revealed has publicly mentioned that it’s trying into the problems. The EMBO Journal’s editor-in-chief informed the Day by day that it was doing a “full due diligence display” of the 2008 paper.
Allegations of misconduct in a number of papers the place Tessier-Lavigne is an writer have been made on PubPeer, an internet site the place commenters can present suggestions on revealed scientific articles.
Within the case of a 2001 research the place Tessier-Lavigne is the lead writer, Bik informed the Day by day that the paper included altered photos.
“The photoshopping was accomplished deliberately, there’s no approach round it,” Bik mentioned, including that the explanation for the modifications was unknown and never essentially falsification.
In earlier feedback to the Day by day for its preliminary article, earlier than the investigation was introduced, the college acknowledged that there have been “points” with the papers, however mentioned that in two instances the president was not concerned within the “era or presentation” of the questionable photos. In two different instances, the college mentioned that the issues “don’t have an effect on the information, outcomes or interpretation of the papers,” a declare that Bik disputed.
Tessier-Lavigne got here to Stanford in 2016 after beforehand serving as president of The Rockefeller College in New York Metropolis. Earlier than that, he labored as an govt on the biotech firm Genentech.
His neuroscience analysis concerned the research of mind improvement and restore, with a give attention to degenerative mind illnesses like Alzheimer’s illness and Parkinson’s illness, based on his biography on Stanford’s web site.
