Alzheimer’s scientist indicted for allegedly falsifying data in $16M scheme

A federal grand jury has indicted an embattled Alzheimer's researcher for allegedly falsifying data to fraudulently obtain $16 million in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health for the development of a controversial Alzheimer's drug and diagnostic test.

In 2023, Science magazine obtained a 50-page report from an internal investigation at CUNY that looked into 31 misconduct allegations made against Wang in 2021. According to the report, the investigating committee "found evidence highly suggestive of deliberate scientific misconduct by Wang for 14 of the 31 allegations," the report states. The allegations largely centered around doctored and fabricated images from Western blotting, an analytical technique used to separate and detect proteins. However, the committee couldn't conclusively prove the images were falsified "due to the failure of Dr. Wang to provide underlying, original data or research records and the low quality of the published images that had to be examined in their place."

In all, the investigation "revealed long-standing and egregious misconduct in data management and record keeping by Dr. Wang," and concluded that "the integrity of Dr. Wang’s work remains highly questionable." The committee also concluded that Cassava's lead scientist on its Alzheimer’s disease program, Lindsay Burns, who was a frequent co-author with Wang, also likely bears some responsibility for the misconduct.

In March 2022, five of Wang's articles published in the journal PLOS One were retracted over integrity concerns with images in the papers. Other papers by Wang have also been retracted or had statements of concern attached to them
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https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-for-allegedly-falsifying-data-in-16m-scheme/

 

Thread about another recent Alzheimer's falsified data story: Researchers plan to retract landmark Alzheimer’s paper containing doctored images

 

It will be interesting to see what happens to the share price of Cassava Sciences.

I also imagine that the indictment of Dr Wang must be worrisome news for Sylvain Lesné, the first author of the “landmark” paper on amyloid beta 56 in Alzheimer’s published in Science in 2006 that was found to be doctored in 2022 by data sleuths, as he might face the same fate.