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| Folder – In this Friday, July 30, 2010 file photo, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini looks on throughout a press meeting where he announced that his surgical team successfully transplanted the windpipes of two cancer patients with an innovative process that uses stem cells to allow a donated trachea to renew tissue and create an organ that is biologically close to the original, Florence, Italy. Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said on Friday, Aug. 28, 2015 that Macchiarini, a top stem cell scientist accused of unprincipled behavior, has been cleared of scientific misconduct though he sometimes acted without due care |
. Top stem cell scientist cleared of misconduct charges
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical
Writer
LONDON (AP) — Sweden’s Karolinska Institute
says a top stem cell scientist accused of unethical behavior has been cleared
of scientific misconduct though he sometimes acted lacking due care.
In a declaration released on Friday, the
university said complaints leveled against Dr. Paolo Macchiarini — who has
created wind pipes using patients’ stem cells — did not qualify as scientific
misconduct, overturning a previous inquiry in May which found him responsible.
After investigative further documents
submitted by Macchiarini, Karolinska’s vice-chancellor Anders Hamsten concluded
there were flaws in Macchiarini’s work “but nothing that can be considered
scientific misconduct.” The earlier investigation had claimed, among other
things, that Macchiarini “selectively described” certain minor problems in
patients while omitting serious complications.
“To have been wrongly accused of serious
misconduct is every researcher’s nightmare,” Macchiarini said in an email. He
said the accusations were very damaging to him and the meadow of regenerative
medicine; the Swedish Research Council froze his grants in June.
Macchiarini has been instructed to submit
corrected information to the journals that published some of his work to explain
the mistakes recognized by the university’s inquiry.
Macchiarini said he would speak with
Karolinska about without delay ensuring the reinstatement of his research
grants. He and colleagues have developed a novel technique of seeding also
donated or synthetic wind pipes with stem cells of patients to stop rejection
and are now increasing their work to include other organs.
“I feel it is extremely important that
public confidence is restored in this field now,” he said. “It is only through
the trust of present patients willing to take part in experimental surgeries
that patients of the prospect will have a chance to advantage.