“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Ernest Hemingway
“Trust is the easiest thing in the world to lose, and the hardest thing in the world to get back.” R. M. Williams
Introduction: Eliezer Masliah, a leader in the fields of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other neurological disorders, has left an indelible mark on the field of neuroscience. His journey to the top began at the University of California at San Diego, and then he assumed the role of Director of the National Institute of Aging (NIA) Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. His impressive resume includes over 800 publications, often in top-tier journals, a testament to the impact of his work. He was recognized as one of the top 10 neuroscientists in the world, particularly in the study of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
“A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” Simon Sinek
The Investigation: Over the last two years, an investigation led by the journal Science has found numerous instances where publications contained falsified immunoblots, data inappropriately reused and ‘doctored’ gels, and other data manipulations. In its research, Science has produced a 300-page document, which shows that from 1997 through 2023, they reported that fraudulent data existed in 132 of his publications. They noted, “In our opinion, this pattern of anomalous data raises a credible concern for research misconduct and calls into question a remarkably large body of scientific work.“
Did a top NIH official, neuroscientist Eliezer Masliah, doctor influential Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s studies for decades? (click here)
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Stephen Covey
Response from the NIH: Upon reviewing this document, on September 26, 2024, the NIH released a statement that following an investigation, it had “made findings of research misconduct” against Dr. Masliah, based on “falsification and fabrication involving reuse and relabel of figure panels.” in two publications. Furthermore, Dr. Masliah is no longer serving as the neuroscience division director at the NIA.
“Trust, honesty, humility, transparency and accountability are the building blocks of a positive reputation. Trust is the foundation of any relationship.” Mike Paul
Falsifying Data: Typically, when fabricating data or reusing blots happens, it’s frequently found that there is a rogue postdoctoral fellow or graduate student who has worked on a project. For whatever reason, they just deemed it necessary to falsify the data to make a point of the discovery that much more convincing. However, the length of the time frame of these inappropriately used data figures implies a more extended history of implanting such corrupt data sets into a manuscript. And it implied that it went to the top of the lab group. The magnitude of the problem is just numbing and shocking. The common factor for all of this work was Dr. Masliah.
“We must trust our own thinking. Trust where we’re going. And get the job done.” Wilma Mankiller
My Gut Feeling: My initial feeling is simply a crushing heaviness. I do not know Dr. Masliah. I am familiar with his work, but the potential negative ramifications and fallout are enormous. As someone with Parkinson’s, we hope every day for a breakthrough in understanding the disease or in a new treatment strategy. Dr. Masliah was such a person of prominence in terms of being a leader in the field of Parkinson’s disease. As a lifelong scientist, it saddens me every time something like this happens because it diminishes the respect and opinion of all scientists when a possible fraudulent scientist is revealed.
Writing a scientific paper aims to describe what you did and how you did it, present the results, weave the story together to support a hypothesis, and then keep going with the story. Simply put, only some experiments work. It could be you are asking the wrong question, you could be measuring the wrong endpoint, you just can’t measure what you are trying to measure, and so forth. Science and experiments are much more complex than they appear on the surface.
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Performing Honest Research: When you are in graduate school or when you assemble a research laboratory group, you don’t take classes, to be honest; it is just expected of you as an undergraduate researcher, a graduate student, a technician, a postdoctoral fellow, or a faculty member. You do expect data would be collected and placed in lab notebooks, and data storage and analysis, would be available for all to see. I never mentioned the idea of fabricating results because that was science fiction not science. You trust your lab group, and there was never a time when trust was questioned—two science stories.
I was once at a meeting in Europe, and a Canadian researcher (actually, a competitor in the field) came up to me after a talk I had just delivered, and he said he always enjoyed reading my group’s papers. I asked him why. He said I always provided so much detail about our methods that they could reproduce our work. And then he said he had learned to scrutinize the footnotes in our papers, as these tidbits of information always proved most valuable in understanding our work. In other words, we shared a lot of information in our publications that other scientists might leave out. I smiled and thanked him for his comments. In hindsight, we made an honest attempt to describe what we did experimentally, without leaving out some essential steps for others to try to reproduce your data.
Science is tough, tricky, and time-consuming; you want to prove your point and advance your hypothesis. In one of my last basic science papers, we had been working for several years with a mouse model of venous thrombosis, and we used a mouse that was senescent (by overexpressing a protein named p16Ink4a). The reviews came back, saying we need to prove the point by doing bone marrow transplant studies. Yes, they were correct. So, another year of experiments began to get a new animal protocol approved to irradiate mice and transfer bone marrow from the various animals to one another. We had collaborations set up all over the medical school and hospital. We used the same radiation machines in the hospital to irradiate the bone marrow in the mice; we just had to get there very early in the morning before the human patients arrived. Then, you had to harvest the bone marrow and give it to the various groups of animals to be tested. Examining the data helped our hypothesis, and the paper was accepted. Ultimately, this is how science is supposed to work. You cannot cut corners. Yes, we could have submitted our work to a different or lesser journal, but we had a point to prove about aging and thrombosis, and with time, we accomplished our goal.
“Accuracy builds credibility.” Jim Rohn
Science Journal Editorial Boards: During my academic career, I was fortunate to have been asked to join the editorial boards of several prestigious scientific journals. Every year, at their annual editorial board meeting, they would give us clues on how to spot fraudulent data (figures, gel blots, especially). And that the Journal employed high-tech screening tools to investigate potential fraudulent images further. It was impressive. A question that comes to mind is why these very top-notch journals did not detect these corrupt data sets and images from the Masliah laboratory.
“I wish I was the verb ‘to trust’ and never let you down.” Eddie Vedder
Closing Thoughts: People demand honesty from scientists. Science (and research) has always been considered an honorable career. Publishing real and not falsified data is critical for any researcher participating in any science field. Eventually, we will get some answers for what happened in the Masliah laboratory. Yes, the luster and reputation of this top-notch Parkinson’s researcher have diminished, serving as a stark reminder of the impact of dishonesty on the reputation of science. However, many outstanding scientists and clinicians still work hard day and night, weekdays and weekends, to advance their findings in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Stay hopeful.
“Frankness invites frankness.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cover photo “Sunrise at Pensacola Beach” by Frank C.. Church
Journey with Parkinson's 