Lancet Editors Increase More Questions About Prominent Harvard Stem Cell Researcher

There is more difficulty for Piero Anversa, the prominent and controversial stem cell researcher.

Right now the Lancet issued an expression of concern about an influential, a lot-cited stem cell paper. As very first reported by Retraction Watch, an investigation at Harvard Medical College and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has raised worries about the integrity of data coming from Piero Anversa’s laboratory at the Brigham contained in the 2011 SCIPIO research published in the Lancet.

Here is the total Expression of Concern issued by the Lancet:

On March 25, 2014, Gretchen Brodnicki, Harvard Health care School’s Dean for Faculty and Investigation Integrity, wrote to The Lancet to inform us that “Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) are reviewing considerations about the integrity of certain information generated in a laboratory at BWH and incorporated in the following published paper…[the] 2011 Lancet SCIPIO paper”. The emphasis of this investigation is on two supplemental figures published on the internet (figures 2A and three). As far as we are mindful, the investigation is confined to the perform finished at BWH. Gretchen Brodnicki continues, “Because evaluation of this paper is ongoing, we cannot supply additional specifics at this time.” In even more discussions with Harvard Health care College, we have been told that the present investigation into this element of the work reported in the SCIPIO trial is likely to take numerous months. As quickly as The Lancet receives further details, we will inform readers accordingly.

In accordance to experienced sources, the Harvard letter requested a total retraction of the article by the Lancet. But without having much more details about the issues raised by the Harvard investigation the editors believed an expression of concern was the most they could justify.

As I reported in 2011, SCIPIO was the subject of considerable hype at the time of its unique publication. ABC News, CBS News and other media outlets utilised phrases like “medical breakthrough” and “heart failure remedy.” ABC News correspondent Richard Besser was so enthusiastic that anchor Diane Sawyer commented that she had by no means noticed him “so fired up.” The very first author of SCIPIO, Roberto Bolli, said the function could represent “the greatest advance in cardiology in my lifetime.”

Earlier this week, as a consequence of the same Brigham and Harvard investigation, a 2012 paper published in Circulation was retracted. Anversa was the senior author on that paper. The retraction was especially impressive because a single of the co-authors was Joseph Loscalzo, the editor-in-chief of Circulation and the chairman of the division of medication at the Brigham.

A single Harvard researcher who has long been familiar with Anversa’s perform mentioned that numerous men and women at Harvard are not amazed by these developments. “If something it’s surprising how prolonged it is taken for these inquiries to surface.”

Lancet Editors Increase More Questions About Prominent Harvard Stem Cell Researcher