This is what Videregen's website used to look like: web.archive.org/web/20181121...

In 2021 they got a grant for clinical translation of a bioengineered thymus, and another grant in 2022: gtr.ukri.org/organisation.... All from IUK.

In Nov 2018 IUK awarded Videregen another substantial grant (~£2M) for another trial, using the same questionable technology on patients with bronchopleural fistula. The HRA paused the trial before it started and it is now withdrawn: clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT044...

In July 2018 I raised concerns to Innovate UK about Videregen's INSPIRE trachea transplant trial. I was told "The grant had been suspended pending the conclusion of the Risk Assessment...This led to suspension of the trial and I can confirm IUK will not be funding the INSPIRE trial from this grant."

It's disgraceful that Innovate UK awarded so much public money to this company.

Disgraceful that Innovate UK awarded so much public money to this company.

Who would've thought in 2015 this site would exist 10 years on.
Worse, who would've thought For Better Science would have such an immense impact!

" supplies from a cord blood bank in Slovakia. "

Just deposited preprint reporting results of Delphi survey on attitudes to sanctions for serious research misconduct
zenodo.org/records/1577...
#fraud #researchIntegrity

Springer Nature and others have published dozens of papers by Egyptian and Saudi researchers with totally fabricated comet assay images. I have written about these papers here, and provided some tips on how to identify these problematic images: forbetterscience.com/2025/06/24/c...

🧵Brief explainer on this report, just up on Zenodo
zenodo.org/records/1537...
Because it's a sensitive topic, there isn't much good evidence about rates of research misconduct. Self-report surveys suggest higher rates than data from official allegations. 1/n

re reporting research misconduct investigations, it's disappointing that the "full dataset" mentioned in this UKCORI report excludes both identities of institutions & all quantitative data. zenodo.org/records/8014...

As Oransky/Marcus argue "who does confidentiality serve?"
doi.org/10.1017/jme....

It was also cited in Birchall's MRC application for funding for the Regenvox laryngeal transplant trial. Birchall states: "Based on our clinical successes and non-GMP/GLP pre-clinical data"
and cites the falsified pig paper. Funding was granted.

The falsified pig paper was cited in an ethics application for a UK trachea transplant trial. It was also cited in a UCL impact case in the 2014 REF: "In 2010, based on preclinical work in pigs [1], UCL performed the world’s first stem cell based organ (whole trachea) transplant in a child..."

Fall-out from Macchiarini scandal seems never-ending. Blogpost by Peter Wilmshurst & Trish Murray. drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/03/18/u...
Not a good look for UCL; quote: “Neither the UKRIO Code of Practice nor the ICMJE guidelines are UCL policy."

UCL rebuffs calls to retract another falsified paper by Prof Birchall The evidence shows that Professor Martin Birchall has been a willing party in research misconduct and that the academic institution that employs him, University College London, finds his conduct ac…

UCL rebuffs another falsified paper by Prof Birchall
drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/03/18/u...

4 people charged; child was "treated" for ADHD and sleep apnea but wait, RFK Jr says FDA is suppressing benefits of "remedies such as vitamins, stem-cell treatments, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and compounds that aim to detoxify blood."
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/... @altfda.altgov.info

Interested in how we can tackle the scourge of research fraud? And meeting people in the delightful city of Oxford? Join us at the FAIRS meeting in April - in-person and online options.
More details and booking form: www.sjcfairsmeeting.com (turn off VPN if it doesn't load)

A picture of doctors and nurses resting in a corridor

And you can now read a copy of the new report: 99-percent.org/wp-content/u...

i look forward to reading this, but initial scan suggests it’s tinkering with a process that might benefit from more radical upheaval.

Mesenchymal cells or MSCs: definition, clinical potential, challenges - The Niche MSC field has data that this simple acronym has a more complicated back story. Just call them mesenchymal cells rather than stem cells.

Overview: Mesenchymal cells or MSCs: definition, clinical potential, challenges ipscell.com/2021/02/mese... #stemcells

Bazerman has an excellent book coming out in May where he describes the whole story of Gino and collaborators and reflects on what makes people commit fraud. No punches pulled

ALLEA Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States

ALLEA (European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities) Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States
allea.org/portfolio-it...

Recent death confirms regulators are failing to protect patients By Professor Patricia Murray and Peter Wilmshurst In an earlier blog we expressed concern that ten doctors, including four professors, at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trus…

disturbing blogpost about unethical use of hyperbaric chambers - inadequate regulation by health authority
drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/r...

Recent death confirms regulators are failing to protect patients By Professor Patricia Murray and Peter Wilmshurst In an earlier blog we expressed concern that ten doctors, including four professors, at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trus…

Unproven HBO therapy poses serious risks:

drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/r...

The Existence of Stealth Corrections in Scientific Literature—A Threat to Scientific Integrity Click on the article title to read more.

new paper by @deadneanderthals.bsky.social and colleagues documenting the disturbing phenonmenon of stealth corrections in the scientific literature onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

"The opening chapters establish the context for this crisis, detailing the pressures that young scientists face in academia...These pressures, Szabo argues, do not merely foster mistakes but actively incentivize misconduct." This likely applies to humanities researchers as well, not just scientists

“Unreliable” by Csaba Szabo – book review and excerpt Csaba Szabo’s book “Unreliable: Bias, Fraud, and the Reproducibility Crisis in Biomedical Research” – review by Zoltan Ungvari and excerpt.

Review of Csaba Szabo's book "Unreliable": "Its central thesis — that the scientific enterprise has been undermined by hypercompetition, financial incentives, and a culture of publish-or-perish — resonates as both a warning and a call to action."

forbetterscience.com/2025/02/03/u...

The long Covid ‘treatments’ to avoid People with long Covid are resorting to a range of unproven remedies, from supplements to stem cells, but simple rehabilitation techniques are proving the best medicine

The long Covid 'treatments' to avoid, including stem cells and hyperbaric oxygen therapy: inews.co.uk/news/health/...

Georgia AG wins $5.1M judgment against stem cell clinic firm Superior Healthcare - The Niche Professor discusses how the Georgia AG won a huge settlement against Superior Healthcare, Steven Peyroux and Brent Detelich.

Great news: ipscell.com/2025/01/geor...