-
And so this is a relevant thing to
think about.
-
So this was a very talented scientist.
I saw her talk at
-
a Gordon research conference and
immediately asked her to apply to UT.
-
I said "You should apply for a faculty job
at UT", completely sold on the story.
-
So was UT Southwestern, who actually
offered her a job
-
as an assistant professor.
-
So was the Cancer Prevention and
Research Institute of Texas,
-
which offered her a two million dollar
recruitment grant.
-
All of which was of course rescinded
when this was discovered.
-
Turns out she had fabricated all the data
in a second paper in PNAS as well.
-
And so I think it's worth considering
these things and sort of paying attention
-
to what happens here, right?
-
So Claire Waterman, the senior author
on these papers is a very famous
-
cell biologist, who's been in the
business for 25 years,
-
at least as long as I have.
-
And is very well regarded, very
respected by all of her colleagues,
-
Obviously this puts her in
quite a bind, right?
-
And it's worth thinking about.
-
We've had faculty in this department
where this has happened, right?
-
This appears to be a case where
a very intelligent young scientist
-
somehow felt something about the
pressure of the job, needed to
-
make up all the data in two entire papers.
-
Then so one of the questions you ask is,
-
that you get asked a lot from
non-scientists is
-
"Well, why doesn't peer review find it?"
-
Right? How does this get through
peer review?
-
Did anyone see anything wrong
with this paper? If I had just given
-
you this paper, you'd have read
it and you'd have loved it, right?
-
Because if you're a smart person,
and you're a dedicated fraud,
-
it's very hard to get caught, right?
-
If you just make up numbers and put
them on a graph, and it looks good,
-
very hard to see that in peer review.
Right?
-
If you pick the part of the image that
shows what you want to show...
-
it's very easy to get away
with this actually.
-
>> The only thing I was suspicious about
in the whole paper was that
-
it all came together so perfectly,
and that's just like not how it should
-
ever happen with cancer cells.
-
>> Yeah, but it does sometimes, right?
-
Yeah, right, it does, and when you sit
there and you watch the data,
-
and it's from a good lab-- right?
-
It's very hard to say,
"Ah, it's too perfect."
-
You know, you wouldn't have said
"Oh, clearly you've made all of this up."
-
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right?
-
>> I don't - I was only suspicious
because I had thought already
-
that that's what happened with
this paper.
-
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. No.
-
It's hard to do the exercise
any other way.
-
August had a question and
then Jifa.
-
>> No, just because we were quite -
-
you know, they made a little bit
far-fetched of a claim, but
-
at the same time we can see that,
yeah, the phenotype's right.
-
So I think...
>> Yeah, Jifa?
-
>> So, were the other scientists
here in on it, or was this like -
-
did she orchestrate it?
-
>> No, the Office of Research Integrity
puts it all on the one person.
-
Basically just a dedicated fraud
all the way through.
-
And again, it wouldn't be that
hard to do, right?
-
So probably the other authors
involved are the authors who
-
generated other reagents,
also possible that many of them
-
just generated reagents and gave
them to this person, to do work on,
-
and then she did experiments on
them and made up the results.
-
But actually in the entire
investigation, only one person
-
was found to be the root of all of this.
-
And so...
-
>> (inaudible).
-
>> Huh?
-
>> I said, it sucks for the other
authors of the paper.
-
>> Oh, it sucks for everybody,
absolutely.
-
>> I'm sorry, I just want to know,
how about the (inaudible)
-
>> I think we don't know. I think
someone will have to go back
-
and redo all those experiments, right?
-
So these are the findings of what
people said, but even those findings
-
in the first few figures, clearly the
numbers are inflated, right?
-
And so I think someone will have
to go back and start over.
-
>> I didn't read the summary at
the beginning because (inaudible),
-
so I just read the introduction,
but I feel like the titles are very attractive,
-
and then I read-- briefly go the the
introduction and read each figure.
-
I think they're basically true then you
gave us a little time so I went back
-
to read the summary.
>> Yup.
-
>> And I felt like some of the summaries
they were giving for the whole picture
-
of this paper, I felt like how could
it be so perfect, you know in
-
animal models, and the (inaudible)
-
>> Yeah, but every once in a while
you get lucky, right?
-
And so that's the thing with fraud, right?
-
If it's really consistent and you
stick to your guns, it's really hard
-
to catch. Now, the funny thing is
-
that surely she must have thought
someone would try to repeat -
-
I mean it's a cell paper. She was
on the job market, she gave
-
talks all over the country.
She must have known that
-
somebody was going to do
these experiments.
-
And so I just don't know.
August?
-
>> I'm pretty sure that Skau's
reputation is completely shattered,
-
but how is the reputation of
Clare Waterman?
-
>> I mean that's always a danger, right?
And time will tell, right?
-
It's the only time she's ever
been associated with it.
-
The independent investigation
found that it was all this one person.
-
So, time will tell.
-
But right now I would say
it's still very good.
-
>> Oh, okay.
>>Right? Yeah.
-
>> This makes me wonder like, what
is so terribly wrong with the system
-
that somebody (inaudible)
-
>> Sure. Right? I mean I think
that's one of the big questions,
-
and what's kind of related
to that that I think's a really
-
subtle point - I'll get to
your questions in a minute,
-
but I do want to make this point,
because it comes straight to this.
-
Right?
-
It's very easy to start believing
your own bullshit. Right?
-
And there's a big difference between
really making up entire papers
-
and not being honest with yourself,
but they all are part of the
-
same spectrum, and something you
have to guard against is
-
"Am I really doing this the right way?"
-
"Am I really seeing what
I think I'm seeing?"
-
"Am I really being completely honest?"
-
Because especially once you get halfway
into a paper, halfway into your PhD,
-
it gets, you know, there's
a lot of pressure.
-
And it's something you have to
fight against, right?
-
Especially when a project's
going south, right?
-
You've invested a lot in it,
and everything's starting to
-
fall apart, and so you've
got to be vigilant.
-
And again, I'm not saying that
you're likely to decide to just
-
make up all the data in the
last three figures of your paper.
-
But the system is stressful.
-
It's a very competitive system.
-
It's a very competitive world.
-
Is fraud any worse now than it used to be,
-
or can we just detect it better, right?
-
I don't actually know. My guess is that
we can detect it a lot better, right?
-
There's a lot better tools for it.
-
But there's also a lot more money
in science than there ever was before
-
at all levels, even in academia,
which puts a big incentive in
-
for people to be unethical.
-
But I mean these are serious concerns,
I think there's things that as
-
graduate students, you guys should
be thinking about and considering.
-
There were some hands up.
I can't remember who they all were.
-
Will?
-
>> I was just going to say that it's
crazy that it seems like the
-
way that she started to get caught
was that she sent
-
stably-transfected cell line, and it
wasn't actually stably-transfected.
-
>> Yup.
>> It seems so basic.
-
>> Yeah, I mean but once you're there,
right, they ask for the line,
-
what are you going to do?
-
>> That's also easy to hand away,
to be like "Oh, it might have..."
-
You know, you build these lines
and they fall apart, so I mean...
-
and if you're this confident in
falsifying data that ends up
-
in the "Cell" paper, you're probably
willing to think that you can
-
argue your way out of
something like that, right?
-
Do you see what I'm saying,
like the mental-- yeah, yeah.
-
>> Well but also at this level, you know
it's slid over into pathology, right?
-
I mean literally every single thing
in this paper has something
-
fraudulent about it.
-
Right, which is really evidence to me
that someone has gone
-
way past "Oh crap, I've got to just
save this one paper" into
-
"I'm invincible".
-
Right?
>> Yeah.
-
>> Yeah yeah yeah, I mean
I don't know, but yeah.
-
>> Yeah, so apart from the reputation
and embarassment, what is the
-
punishment for such (inaudible)?
-
>> Right, so the punishment for her
is-- I mean, the punishment
-
is her entire scientific career
is completely ruined.
-
She'll never work in the
field again, right?
-
>> What about the taxpayer's money?
>> Right, right, right.
-
Taxpayer's money, there's nothing--
I mean, nothing done.
-
They have these voluntary settlements
here that you can read about it.
-
And these things are really built
around the assumption of
-
small amounts of fraud, you know?
-
You made a mistake, you're a savable
person as a scientist, then they
-
put a supervisory plan in place
where someone's really
-
looking a lot more carefully at your work,
and then for three years,
-
you're not allowed to work for the NIH
and these kinds of things.
-
But at this level, her reputation
is just destroyed, so there's--
-
we won't see her anywhere
in academic science again.
-
In terms of monetary, these kinds of
things, I don't know of any,
-
and there's much more-- there was
a big "New York Times" piece
-
about a cancer biologist at
Penn State who's apparently
-
been under investigation for fraud
like every other year for ten years,
-
and he still has millions of dollars
of research money and it just sort of
-
never comes home to roost, so.
-
You guys should educate yourself
about the fraud situation,
-
and what's there.
-
Did someone else have a hand up?
-
>> Can I same something quick?
>> Yeah.
-
>> I saw in the news, UT Southwestern
removed a million dollar grant from her.
-
>> Yeah yeah, that's the grant.
Yeah-- oh yeah, she--
-
the job was rescinded, the grant
was rescinded, so she's not
-
getting the grant, she didn't
get the job, she will absolutely
-
have to leave science.
-
As I understand it, she's like a
program officer at a foundation now
-
or something. Yeah.
-
>> But not just the monetary loss,
what about killing so many mice
-
and falsifying data? (inaudible).
(laughter)
-
>> If you go down the road that
killing life is a problem,
-
then you're going to have
a real problem.
-
>> If you're doing science, doing
something productive,
-
it makes sense but if
you're falsifying data.
-
>> Yeah.
-
>> I was--
>> Hang on, you had a hand up.
-
>> How often-- obviously this one
seems like it was very intentional,
-
and so that's really-- but how
often do people get
-
caught up in this just because
they weren't careful enough
-
and they didn't force themselves
to be very thorough?
-
>> I mean mistakes get made in papers
all the time, right, and some papers
-
get retracted because we went back
and resequenced the mouse allele,
-
and it wasn't what we thought
it was, right?
-
But generally what happens is there's
a correction. Generally when that happens,
-
it's not like the entire paper's ruined,
"Oh, surprise, we mutated
-
totally the wrong gene".
-
Usually it's like "Oh we thought it was
exon 3, but in a frameshift,
-
but in fact it was something else."
Right?
-
>> Right.
-
>> And so you get a lot of corrections
in papers, and some retractions,
-
but generally, you know, you've
got to-- the whole paper
-
really has to be systematically
wrong to retract the entire paper.
-
>> So it's the dishonesty that
gets prosecuted.
-
>> Yeah, or I mean, it-- yeah, so the
dishonestly immediately you want to
-
retract the paper, because that's
also what the PI is going to
-
want to do.
>> Right.
-
>> Right? But if you just get it wrong,
you know, you get it wrong,
-
we're human, right?
-
If there was no-- and there have been
investigations where they find
-
"Oh, no, they weren't unethical,
they were just dumb."
-
(laughter)
-
No, seriously, right? And that can
happen, right?
-
And that's not a crime.
-
So, yeah.
-
>> Who does these investigations?
Is there like a secret service
-
for scientists, like--
>> Yeah.
-
The Office of Research Integrity
at the NIH, right?
-
>> At the NIH?
-
>> Yup, and then all universities will
have an office for research integrity,
-
so I'm sure that-- so if it happens at UT,
there's a UT office that will investigate,
-
but the NIH will also investigate
if it's NIH-funded research.
-
Yeah, so several differnet bodies.
-
And there's a...
-
Yeah.
-
>> Has anyone here read
the book "Bad Blood?"
-
>> "Bad Blood" what is that?
-
>> It's about the Theranos controversy
and (inaudible).
-
>> Oh, wow. No, is it good?
>> It's amazing.
-
>> Really? "Bad Blood."
>> Everyone should read it.
-
>> Okay.
>> It's really good.
-
>> The documentary on
HBO's pretty good.
-
>> Same title? Okay.
-
>> I think so.
>> Okay.
-
>> So lots of these
kinds of things existing.
-
>> Yeah (laughs).
-
>> Just like the...
-
I don't know how to
say that vitamin C is
-
for everything, and so now,
the (inaudible) for everything
-
and the (inaudible) can do everything,
-
and they just make money from that.
-
(laughter)
-
>> As long as they don't kill anyone,
-
they just sell the ideas
to the (inaudible).
-
>> Yeah, I mean that's the entire
supplement industry, right?
-
All right. Any other questions?
-
Thoughts, comments?
-
>> When is the next assignment due?
-
>> Next assignment is due
a week from Wednesday.
-
No, so nine days from now.
-
>> Nine days?
-
>> Nine days.
-
Whatever the date is here,
actually I have a calendar
-
in front of me.
>> It is the 6th so the 15th.
-
>> The 15th.
>> Ooh, I'm good at simple math.
-
>> It is as my calendar says,
'cause I have an 11 year old
-
girl at home, and "Riverdale"
season three starts.
-
(laughter)
-
But also your assignment is due,
so get it done before River--
-
>> "Riverdale" season three
already happened.
-
>> What?
(laughter)
-
Oh, no, no, it comes out
free on Netflix. Yeah.
-
(laughter)
-
>> Judge me all you want.
-
>> I have a shared--
>> I know all of you
-
watch "Game of Thrones,"
and I don't, so.
-
>> No, no I don't either.
-
(crosstalk)
-
>> Jifa?
-
>> What's going on Wednesday?
-
>> Haven't decided yet. It's going to
be so much fun, though.
-
(laughter)
-
All right, cool. We're done.
-
(crosstalk)
-
>> I mean I sent in my paper
just last Friday afternoon.
-
>> Okay.
>> Was that too late, 'cause I--
-
>> It was too late, 'cause we
told you again and again and again--
-
>> Oh my--
>> All right, so anyway
-
>> Sorry about that.
>> Did you get your paper in today?
-
>> Yes. Yes, yes.
>> Okay. Great.
-
We will survive it.
>> Thank you, thank you.
-
>> All right.
-
(crosstalk continues)
-
>> Oh sorry, I wasn't (inaudible).
-
And on Wednesday-- I mean, this is
not about the class,
-
it's slightly about the class,
because (inaudible)--
-
invitation, having lunch--
>> With Roy Parker?
-
Yeah, you leave early
and go to that.
-
>> No no, not for that, but on
Wednesday afternoon,
-
I'm flying to (inaudible) to walk
in the commencement.
-
>> Oh okay. So you'll
miss this talk?
-
>> Yeah, I'll miss this talk likely,
and I'll be away for two weeks
-
because my parents are coming.
>> No problem.
-
So send your paper in before that.
>> So I was going to submit it
-
on Wednesday.
>> Great, no problem.
-
Okay, cool, good, it works.
>> Thank you.
-
>> You bet.
-
>> Mina?
>> Yeah?
-
>> So are you going to be in
your office right now, or?
-
>> Yeah yeah, I'll be here all day
doing experiments,
-
so if I'm not there, just leave it
on my desk.
-
>> Okay.
-
(crosstalk)