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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/123/nation/Hepatitis_vaccine_data_faked
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Hepatitis vaccine data faked
Coauthors retract research finding published in 2000
By Richard Saltus
Boston Globe Staff
5/3/2001

A visiting Japanese scientist working at the National Cancer Institute
has admitted that he rigged part of a vaccine research project and
fabricated

data, his coauthors say in a printed retraction of a report on the
project.

The coauthors said they were unaware that the lead author, Tatsumi
Arichi, had rigged the experiment by ''spiking'' a cell fluid with
quantities of
a virus to make it seem that the virus had grown in the cells. His
coauthors called it a ''serious problem.

''The original paper describing the vaccine work appeared in the Jan. 4,
2000, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That
paper said that a DNA vaccine being tested in mice in the experiment was
a ''potential candidate'' for a vaccine to prevent hepatitis C, which
affects about 4 million Americans.In the wake of that paper, scientists
tried
repeatedly to duplicate the results, but were unable to do so.

The retraction appeared this week on the journal's Web site, and will be
published in the May 8 edition of the publication.Such retractions are
occurring more frequently, said an official of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. But the increased frequency may reflect
greater willingness to print retractions, rather than an increase in data
fabrication, said Mark Frankel, director of the association's Program on
Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and the Law.

''There were very, very, very few retractions based on misconduct until
the 1990s,'' Frankel said in an interview. ''But the scientific community
began to realize there's enough of this going on that we have some
contaminated
literature out there, and we don't want to waste time and resources''
attempting to duplicate research that was fabricated to begin with.

The authors of the retraction, including Arichi, said that ''we deeply
regret to report that we have discovered'' that the vaccine data ''have been
fabricated and the paper must be retracted.''''Dr. Arichi, the first
author, has now admitted in writing that he spiked some of the ovary
homogenates
... with calculated quantities of stock virus, resulting in the titers
[concentration] reported in the paper,'' said the retraction.The time
frame wasn't clear, and officials of the cancer institute released little
specific information.

In an e-mail response to a reporter's questions, the senior author of the
original paper, Jay A. Berzofsky, said the matter is being investigated
by the NIH Office of Research Integrity, which probes alleged research fraud
and misconduct.The scientists were testing the ability of a DNA vaccine to
block the hepatitis C virus. Because the hepatitis virus doesn't grow in
mice,
they used a virus called vaccinia to stand in for the hepatitis virus.Two
groups of mice were given the vaccinia virus. Both were to become infected,
and
one of the groups of mice would get the preventive vaccine.The specific type
of vaccinia virus used in the experiment doesn't grow well in mice, said
Berzofsky, so Arichi apparently ''spiked'' some fluid from the mice with
vaccinia virus to make it seem the vaccinia virus had taken hold and was
growing.In the wake of the published paper, Arichi's colleagues tried to
repeat the experiment but could not get the vaccinia virus to grow in the
mice, said Berzofsky.

''After we confronted Dr. Arichi, who was no longer at NIH, he admitted''
to spiking the cell fluids, Berzofsky said.Arichi worked at NIH from
December 1995 through May 1999, said a spokeswoman for the National Cancer
Institute.A spokesman for the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences said
this was the first retraction of a paper this year. Last year there were
four
retractions, and there were two in 1999, said the spokesman.

Retractions can stem from honest mistakes in experiments, as well as data
fabrication.

This story ran on page 4 of the Boston Globe on 5/3/2001.

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