Famed
cancer researcher Yoshiaki Ito has been cleared, after an investigation, of
allegations of misconduct by a prominent Israeli scientist.
The conclusion comes six weeks after a formal
complaint to Professor Ito's employer, the National University of Singapore
(NUS).
"We find no evidence for research
misconduct on the part of Prof Ito," said a spokesman for the university.
The complaint related to Prof Ito's seminal
2002 paper in the journal Cell, declaring that the RUNX3 gene suppresses the
growth of cancer cells in the stomach.
The work of Japanese and South Korean
scientists, it was helmed by Prof Ito while he was working at Kyoto University,
before his move to Singapore in 2002.
The breakthrough led to a flurry of research
and nearly 300 published papers.
This July, however, scientists from the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot city, Israel, published their own paper
about their failure to confirm Prof Ito's findings that RUNX3 is active in the
gastrointestinal tract tissue.
Noting that the issue has been the subject of
a longstanding and open scientific disagreement, the NUS spokesman said that
"honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data are best
addressed through further research and scholarship".
The recent investigation was very thorough,
conducted by an experienced and highly respected NUS professor and done in
accordance with the university's Research Integrity code, he added. Besides
carefully examining data and conducting interviews with Prof Ito, the opinions
of expert international scientists were sought.
The complainant had identified himself and
been open with what he was alleging, the NUS spokesman noted.
"This is exactly as he should have done,
rather than resorting to anonymous allegations," he said.
"He presented issues that concerned him
and he stated what he believed, even though in this case, research misconduct
was not proven."
Yesterday, Prof Ito told The Straits Times
that he felt heartened to have been cleared.
"For a scientist, an allegation of
misconduct is most damaging. We scientists take pride in achieving new
knowledge through our research," said Prof Ito, deputy director of the
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and Yong Loo Lin Professor of Medical
Oncology at NUS.
He believes it is time to move on.
"While this has been a difficult time for
my team and myself, we have had great faith in how NUS works, and its fairness
and integrity in handling issues such as this.
"We will move on and continue our efforts
at unlocking the key mechanisms that drive common cancers in Singapore and
Asia."
The researcher who made the official complaint
to NUS, however, is standing his ground.
Professor Yoram Groner told The Straits Times
that his team would be happy to give the strain of special research mice needed
for such experiments to any third-party group.
"I welcome anyone to try and reproduce
the results," he said.
In the meantime, the investigation of another
high-profile case of possible fraud involving a former NUS researcher,
Professor Alirio Melendez, is likely to take longer to complete.
NUS and the other universities involved are
looking at about 70 other papers by the scientist and his research team and
collaborators, following retractions and questions raised in two top journals.
The investigation must also be coordinated with those by two other universities
overseas.
Chang Ai-Lien
The Straits Times
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