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Science, Blots on a field? (potential fabrication in Alzheimer's research), 2022, Charles Piller

Discussion in 'Other health news and research' started by CRG, Jul 22, 2022.

  1. CRG

    CRG Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Article: Science, Blots on a field ?, Charles Piller

    First para:

    "In August 2021, Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist and physician at Vanderbilt University, got a call that would plunge him into a maelstrom of possible scientific misconduct. A colleague wanted to connect him with an attorney investigating an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease called Simufilam.

    The drug’s developer, Cassava Sciences, claimed it improved cognition, partly by repairing a protein that can block sticky brain deposits of the protein amyloid beta (Aβ), a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

    The attorney’s clients—two prominent neuroscientists who are also short sellers who profit if the company’s stock falls—believed some research related to Simufilam may have been “fraudulent,” according to a petition later filed on their behalf with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)."

    Online version of the Science article available here: https://www.science.org/content/art...mages-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease
     
    cfsandmore, Ariel, oldtimer and 7 others like this.
  2. CRG

    CRG Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Ariel, alktipping, oldtimer and 4 others like this.
  3. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Solid article. Data fabrication is always bad, but particularly despicable when peoples’ lives are at stake.

    “You can cheat to get a paper. You can cheat to get a degree. You can cheat to get a grant. You can’t cheat to cure a disease,” he says. “Biology doesn’t care.”
     
    Sarah94, mango, oldtimer and 7 others like this.
  4. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Ariel, shak8, oldtimer and 1 other person like this.
  5. cassava7

    cassava7 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    A sad constatation, unfortunately, especially since Dr Neve’s mother now suffers from Alzheimer’s. With all the hits the amyloid hypothesis has been receiving lately, hopefully it will come to pass away.
     
    Ariel, shak8 and oldtimer like this.
  6. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Reading comments about this elsewhere and overall the outrage is over nearly 2 decades lost on a wasted hypothesis, and all I can think of is how it pales in comparison to how chronic illness has been botched. It's a similar scandal except 10x longer and 10x more people, usually in the prime of our lives. Except there never was any evidence at all, didn't have to fake anything, there literally never was any, people just believe it, in fact need evidence against it.

    Because 2 people didn't fail, an entire system failed. Hundreds of people were involved in validating and approving research based on this and they all failed at their duties, either they all saw nothing or failed to have the courage to say it.

    And that same system fails us every day, for even worse reasons. There literally is no evidence for psychosomatic anything, it's not even a case of falsified evidence, it's the complete absence of it.

    And yet there are probably barely a handful of people in all of academia who get this, most would never look at the scandalous denial of chronic illness and see any valid comparison, even though on the whole it's the same failure, just far worse. And this scandal is horrible, I'm not diminishing it, if anything it emphasizes how criminal everything done to us has been.

    No one ever calls out the emperor's naked butt until everyone else does it. The system is at fault, it needs top to bottom reform, and yet hardly anyone could even acknowledge that, every mistake is its own little unique snowflake, which is why this whole damn system is so mediocre and dysfunctional that you can fake your way to billions in wasted funding and, let's be honest here, nothing will happen to the people responsible.

    No incentives to do the right thing. Zero consequences for fraud. Great system, delivering exactly as much as it's built to.
     
    Amw66 and Ariel like this.
  7. Sean

    Sean Moderator Staff Member

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    "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
    Richard Feynman
     
    Amw66, Lilas and SNT Gatchaman like this.
  8. SNT Gatchaman

    SNT Gatchaman Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    One of the researchers involved - Dr Karen Ashe - has responded in what I assume is the Alzheimer's equivalent of S4ME. From the first comment in this post.

     
    Lilas, Ariel, Jaybee00 and 2 others like this.
  9. Jaybee00

    Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  10. cassava7

    cassava7 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Note to readers: for a quick summary, skip to the last section (The Big Picture).

    There is a thought-provoking comment under the piece, too: https://www.science.org/content/blo...oid-data-what-does-it-mean#comment-5928242790
     
    cfsandmore, Sean, Lilas and 4 others like this.

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