A U.S. Government scientist and leading authority on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s published faked images in papers on the diseases, a Government report has claimed. The Telegraph has the details.
Eliezer Masliah, who led the neuroscience division at the National Institute on Ageing, a Government health body, has been a key figure in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease research for decades.
But an investigation by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made “findings of research misconduct” against Dr. Masliah for “falsification and/or fabrication” of figure panels which were used to show experimental results.
According to the academic journal Science, which conducted its own investigation into Dr. Masliah, he may have also doctored pictures used in several research papers.
“All four [papers] used apparently doctored images, according to the dossier, as did other Masliah papers cited in clinical trial reports as important to [Parkinson’s disease treatment] prasinezumab’s development,” Science reported.
The falsification is claimed to include the “duplication of the same image with different captions about different research in different journals”.
According to the NIH, misconduct may have occurred in two studies co-authored by Dr Masliah. …
Science’s investigation, which was published days after the NIH’s findings, alleged that “scores” of Dr. Masliah’s lab studies were “riddled with” apparently manipulated images.
The journal reportedly brought its findings to a neuroscientist and forensic analysts who later asserted that more than 100 of Dr. Masliah’s published studies, spanning more than two decades, contained a “steady stream of suspect images”.
Dr. Masliah, a former professor at the University of California San Diego, was appointed to head the National Institute on Aging in 2016, when Congress significantly increased funding for Alzheimer’s research.
Dr. Masliah’s department had a budget of $2.6 billion, making him one of the most influential figures in neuroscience, with the power to set research priorities within the field.
His own research, amounting to around 800 papers, particularly on proteins such as alpha-synuclein linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, has been widely cited and drawn upon in clinical and drug development efforts. …
A forensic review led by neuroscientist Matthew Schrag, image analyst Kevin Patrick, and others identified issues in 132 papers published between 1997 and 2023. The team found allegedly manipulated western blots – images used to detect proteins – and allegedly altered micrographs of brain tissue. …
The apparently manipulated images raise questions about the calibre and integrity of Dr. Masliah’s research, Mu Yang, a Columbia University neurobiologist who analysed parts of Dr. Masliah’s published work, told Science.
Dr. Masliah’s work has played an important role in advancing drug trials, including for prasinezumab.
His research also helped to secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical trials for the drug.
However, results from a 2022 trial of prasinezumab revealed no significant benefit in treating Parkinson’s.
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