Stanford investigates potential misconduct in president ’s research

Stanford University has launched an investigation of possible research misconduct in several papers co-authored many years ago by its president, neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, after the school’s student newspaper raised questions about potentially manipulated images in the articles, published long before he came to the school. The university “will assess the allegations presented in The Stanford Daily , consistent with its normal rigorous approach by which allegations of research misconduct are reviewed and investigated,” an administrator told a reporter last night . The statement, also shared with Science , came a day after the university downplayed the possible image problems in its initial response to the Daily . Tessier-Lavigne, former president of Rockefeller University who was also once chief scientific officer at Genentech, is known for his work on axon guidance molecules, proteins that govern the growth of key nerve fibers in the developing spinal cord. The publications under scrutiny include two 2001 Science papers , a 2003 Nature paper , and a 2008 paper in the European Molecular Biology Organization’s The EMBO Journal . Questions about certain images in the papers first surfaced years ago on PubPeer , an online forum where scientists comment, often anonymously, on possible problems in published research. Som...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news