>Alan Trounson, PhD, the researcher responsible for the first in vitro (IVF) birth in Australia, who once had to apologize for misleading the Australian Parliament after showing them a video that he claimed showed a mouse that walked after human embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury (in fact, they were fetal cells from aborted babies), and the man who was recently hired as President of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine is not under investigation . But the people at his last project are, for discrepancies in reporting at his old lung regeneration project.
The $1 Million (Australian) grant required reports on progress each 3 months. It seems that there were questions not only about the lack of results in the project, but doubts about whether someone falsified one of the reports.
The Herald Sun, “Australia’s largest newspaper,” reported on October 13th that
World-renowned Melbourne scientist Alan Trounson’s $1m stem cell research project is under investigation after it was scrapped for delivering highly doubtful results.
Monash University is examining anomalies in interim findings from the lung regeneration research conducted in its labs with public money.
Prof Trounson — a doctor of philosophy who was headhunted to run the world’s richest stem cell outfit in the US next year — was the project’s principal investigator.
The research was done by a team of about 13 scientists, including postgraduate students, to see how stem cells might help slow lung disease in cystic fibrosis sufferers.
It was stopped in February when the Australian Stem Cell Centre cut funding after a three-week investigation found inconsistencies in multiple progress reports.
The Herald Sun has learned the reports were signed by Prof Trounson and a senior researcher.
Another investigator in the lab is the main focus of the investigation, however. (Warning to all Ph.D. candidates – and you thought it was dangerous enough when choosing your sponsor.)
As of 10 PM CDT, there’s no reports in US news sources.
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