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一个Thomas走了，千百个Thomas笑了

已有 8431 次阅读 2009-7-17 22:46 |个人分类:博客和科研|系统分类:海外观察| 美国, 学术造假, 科学诚信办公室

科学网新闻网页上发布了题为“美两名科学家被查出伪造实验数据”的新闻。我看了以后，又找到美国《科学家》网站的原文和评论读了一遍。读了之后，我觉得我们更有理由认为，轻描淡写式地处理是科学造假泛滥的重要原因。

“据《科学家》杂志报道，美国科学诚信办公室（ORI）近日报告，美国2名肾脏研究人员涉嫌谎报动物实验方法和伪造实验数据，涉及过去8年来共16篇论文和多篇基金申请。

这2名科学家，Judith Thomas 和Juan Contreras，之前均就职于阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校（UAB），后者曾在前者手下做博士后。二人不实地报告他们在多个实验中完成了猕猴双肾移除，这些实验用来测试2种免疫抑制药物（免疫毒素FN18-CRM9和15-DSG）在阻止单肾移植排斥反应方面的效力。

UAB负责研究的副校长Richard Marchase说，实验程序应该是先移除一个天然肾，用一个移植肾进行替换，并对猕猴开始施用免疫抑制剂；一个月后再移除另一个天然肾，“而在Thomas和Contreras所做的大量实验中，他们从未进行第二步手术”。这样，留下一个完整的天然肾会让实验动物存活并加大测试药物的外观效力。

……”

这两人都是搞肾脏移植免疫抑制药物疗效研究的，他们的研究结果直接关系到病人的生命安全，所以有理由给予更多的关注。这两人的造假，涉及过去8年来共16篇论文和多篇基金申请。《科学家》杂志原文中提到了这两人从NIH获得基金的总额：2300万美元！

2300万美元相当于1.5亿人民币！中国人民要为美国人民做多少双鞋子和袜子，美国人民才能赚到这么多的美元？（别以为这些钱是美国政府出的。美国政府早就“资不抵债”了。这些损失，很可能要中国或印度尼西亚的老百姓来最后买单的。）

数额巨大，影响恶劣，直接危及病人生命安全，应该说情节相当严重。但是，从新闻上看，对他们的惩罚仅仅是他们被迫从他们任职的大学辞职（仅仅是辞职），在若干年内不能申请美国政府的钱。

不想多说了。我们看看《科学家》美国网友的评论：

评论之一：惩罚！

浪费了2300万美元却能自由走开？我认为这些人应该被关到监狱里去。为拯救这个国家，是到了对这种白领犯罪采取严厉措施的时候了。

评论之二：罪犯！

不用再说了！这些研究者是聪明的罪犯，他们从政府那里诈骗了成千万的美元，但8年来一直没被发现。

公司里的诈骗犯往往会得到漫长的判刑。这些科学的骗子也应该受到同样的刑罚。科学的骗局对无辜的受害者造成的损害甚至更严重……那些慢性病病人，或许在忍受着无用的治疗，或许根本没有得到什么治疗。或许本来他们可以得到用这些被浪费的科研经费发展的真正有效的治疗的！我强烈呼吁将科研造假定为犯罪。

不用再说了。想想那些在实验室里苦苦劳作，暴露于有毒试剂，苦苦探索，却重复不出科学“假说”的科研工作者的悲惨命运；想想那些被假研究误导的，用无效药物治疗疾病的病人的悲惨命运。这些造假者难道不应该被更严厉地惩罚吗？

获得如此巨大的利益，如此严重的造假，花了如此长的时间才被查实的一个案件，当事人仅仅辞职就可以潇洒走开。社会的公正和正义何在？

美国政府的科学诚信办公室（ＯＲＩ）是其人类健康和服务部的一个下属机构。这个机构实际上只有非常有限的行政资源和权力。这个监督管理全美国庞大科研经费是否合法使用的政府部门，只有寥寥几个雇员。这种状况，加上ORI本身的严重官僚化，使得他们的实际工作效率相当低下。ORI现在能做到的，只是每年例行公事般地不痛不痒地处理几个科研造假者。这种不痛不痒的“你3年内不能再从我这里骗钱”式的处罚，与其说是惩罚造假，不如说是鼓励造假。

现在科研造假现象如此严重，泛滥到了发生哈佛，耶鲁这种名校需包庇多囊肾（PKD）领域集体造假的这类事件，原因也许就在此。

最后，我就再引用一个美国网友对此事的评论：

“The truth got out this time because of the in-fighting between the two collaborators. God only knows how many other such cases are out there, where people involved are still in good terms. This is a depressing thought.”

一个Thomas走了，还有多少个Thomas　“OUT THERE”在笑?

=========================================

现将科学网上的新闻和美国《科学家》杂志的全文摘录如下：

Thomas和Contreras的研究受到美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）2300多万美元的资助。Marchase表示，Thomas最初声称是Contreras独自犯下不当行为，自己毫不知情。但UAB的调查最终显示，Thomas也参与了其中。

调查发现，2人共涉嫌在16篇论文和多篇NIH基金申请中伪造数据，时间跨度达8年之久。最初的一篇伪造论文于1998年发表在《移植》（Transplantation）期刊上，最近的一篇于2005年发表在《免疫学期刊》（Journal of Immunology）上。而2人最初在基金申请中伪造数据是在1999年提交给NIH的一份R01资助进度报告中。这16篇论文中的14篇已经被撤销，另外2篇也正在撤销的进程中。

Thomas之前是NIH国立过敏与传染病研究所（NIAID）董事会成员，事件曝光后，她于2008年1月10日辞去了UAB正教授职位，其时，她所领导的实验室里有6至10名研究生、技术人员和博士后。她还同意“自愿排除协议”，在此协议下，10年内她将不能接受任何来自美国政府的资助或担任美国公共卫生局（PHS）的顾问。

而Contreras则于7月6日辞去了他在UAB的助理教授职位，并且也与ORI达成了自愿协议，3年内不得接受政府资助和担任PHS顾问。此外，UAB还禁止他担任一些项目的PI（研究负责人）。这样，在ORI和UAB的双重处罚下，他获得研究职位的机会已非常渺茫，只好选择辞职。（科学网梅进/编译）”

==========================================

以下是The Scientists 网站上的原文及评论。

http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55823/

Renal Researchers Faked Data

Two researchers conducting animal studies on immunosuppression lied about experimental methodologies and falsified data in 16 papers and several grants produced over the past 8 years, according to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

The scientists, Judith Thomas and Juan Contreras, formerly at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), falsely reported that they performed double kidney removals on several rhesus macaques in experiments designed to test the effectiveness of two immune suppressing drugs -- Immunotoxin FN18-CRM9 and 15-deoxyspergualin (15-DSG) -- in preventing rejection of the a single transplanted kidney.

The experimental protocol was to remove one intrinsic kidney, replacing it with a transplant and starting the monkeys on immunosuppresants, and then remove the other intrinsic kidney a month later, according to Richard Marchase, UAB's vice president of research. "What occurred in a good number of these animals was that [Contreras and Thomas] never performed the second surgery," Marchase told The Scientist. In a statement emailed to The Scientist Marchase called the misconduct "a very serious offense."

Thomas's and Contreras's research was funded with more than $23 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health. UAB officials learned that Contreras and Thomas had left one native kidney intact in at least 32 animals -- which allowed those animals to live and inflated the apparent effectiveness of the drugs -- on January 27, 2006, when Thomas reported that she found an experimental monkey with one of its native kidneys intact and blamed Contreras for the mistake.

Marchase said that Thomas initially alleged that Contreras, a surgeon and Thomas's former postdoc, perpetrated the misconduct on his own without her knowledge, but the UAB investigation eventually showed that Thomas was in on the deception as well.

"The lack of second nephrectomies could have been discovered years earlier from examination of animal care records and from questions and concerns raised by various UAB staff," wrote Peter Abbrecht from ORI in a statement emailed to The Scientist, "but the principal investigator [Thomas] did not undertake any such actions, and appeared to exert very little control over the integrity of the study." Thomas accepted responsibility for the misconduct, but both she and Contreras denied intentionally committing fraud, according to the ORI report.

The ORI investigation found that the misconduct -- which specifically consisted of "falsifications in publishing of research results in journals and grant applications" -- spanned more than 8 years, from a fraudulent 1998 publication by Contreras and Thomas in Transplantation to a falsified paper that was published by Thomas in a December 2005 issue of the Journal of Immunology. The ORI also determined that Thomas first presented falsified data to the NIH in a 1999 R01 grant progress report.

In total Thomas and/or Contreras fudged data in 16 publications and several NIH grant applications. Fourteen of the publications have been retracted and two are in the process of being retracted, according to UAB. "The extent of misconduct with the widespread dispersion of falsified results had the effect of increasing the credibility of the respondents and thereby increasing the acceptance of the falsified results by other researchers in the field," wrote Abbrecht in the ORI statement. "Such acceptance could lead to wasted research effort by other researchers and possibly placing patients at harm if they were enrolled in clinical trials designed on the basis of the falsified results."

Thomas, who was also formerly on the board of directors at the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, resigned her full professorship on January 10, 2008, after she learned of UAB's findings. At the time of her resignation she maintained a lab with 6-10 grad students, technicians and postdocs, according to Marchase. Thomas agreed to a "Voluntary Exclusion Agreement," under which she will not be able to receive any funding from the US government or to serve in any advisory capacity to the US Public Health Service (PHS) for ten years. A call placed to a number listed under Judith Thomas in Birmingham was not answered, and UAB officials declined to provide Thomas's contact information.

Contreras resigned his UAB assistant professorship last week, on July 6, and also entered a voluntary agreement with the ORI in which he will be excluded from government funding and PHS advisory roles for three years. Marchase said UAB barred Contreras from being PI on projects, animal protocols, and internal review board protocols, but that, "under a very tight mentoring and oversight system, he [would] be allowed to continue to do research on other folks' grants." However, said Marchese, UAB's and ORI's combined sanctions left few options for him. "Because there was really no position left for him, he chose to resign." Contreras initially agreed to comment on the matter, but later failed to return phone calls and emails from The Scientist.

Though the motivation for the misconduct remains unclear, the case has increased the university's vigilance in monitoring research integrity, according to Marchese. "We really don't understand it," he said. "It's just not a situation that is in keeping with what it means to be a scientist."

用良知充实良心分享 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/Lincbacon What we seek we shall find.

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