What would we do without peer review?
Fraud rocks protein community
The finding by a university misconduct investigation that a crystallographer "more likely than not" faked almost a dozen protein structures has left the field in shock. The fraud is the largest ever in protein crystallography. The disputed structures had important implications for discovering drugs against dengue virus and for understanding the human immune system.
"It's massive," protein crystallographer Wayne Hendrickson of Columbia University in New York says of the investigation's conclusion. "It's the worst possible thing."
In a report released earlier this month, the University of Alabama at Birmingham concluded that H. M. Krishna Murthy acted alone in fabricating and falsifying results that appeared in ten papers published during the past decade. The disputed papers have been cited more than 450 times.
I know what you're thinking.
There's a protein community?
h/t John E.
Yeah but were those papers peer reviewed???
Protein community -- is that where protein wisdom comes from?
The important thing is the science community weeds out these frauds.
Without science, where would we be?
We seem to live in an age where integrity is considered "quaint" and passe. In the past we always gave the learned gentlemen of science a pass because we thought they couldn't possibly cheat.
Now, we know better. Scientists are no different than anyone else, no more or less integrity,honesty,and if large amounts of money are involved, just as susceptible to corruption as any other group.
We HAVE progressed over the last two generations,haven't we?
Man, of course there's a protein community.
There's a community for every thing in science.
There's also assholes who fake science out there.
Weren't there snake oil salesmen who relied on the scientific community to make the potions to scam the people out of their hard earned dollars.
The nice thing about those days was that when they caught such hucksters, they were usually found swinging from the local tree in the morning.
Kind of get teary eyed thinking about the good olde days!! Wish we had them back sometimes.
Of course there is a protein community...
Knowledge of the 3d structure of proteins is massively important for understanding how enzymatic and structural proteins work within the body, and is critically necessary for the development of drugs that works on receptor systems within the body.
Without protein research, you wouldn't have your Gleevac's (imatinib) - antineoplastic drugs that successfully treat certain types of cancers that rely on tyrosine kinase receptor activity to proliferate, or certain antidepressants, immunomodulators, and thousands of other methods of pharmacotherapy. Why, without crystallography research, we'd never have found out the double helical structure of DNA.
lol...Where did you think these discoveries came from?
As a scientist involved in health related research, I am just disgusted. The falsification and fabrication of research results by people who call themselves scientists is embarrassing. Where is the oversight? Somebody somewhere knew that this was happening long ago. Maybe we need a whistle-blower system for graduate students and post-docs to make reports without killing their careers.
People are food!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hendrik_Sch%C3%B6n
Weren't there snake oil salesmen who relied on the scientific community to make the potions to scam the people out of their hard earned dollars.
Glacierman, now they call that outfit pharmaceutical drugs.
Scientists are people, like you or me. If there are lying politicians, lying doctors, lying journalists, lying businessmen why should there not be lying scientists?
They have to get grants, and to get grants they have to publish, so there is no wonder that they some of them are lying and falsifying their research.
They are like all of us - most do not lie, minority do.
Yup, there is a 'protein community' out there and I consider myself to be part of it. As Dante correctly pointed out in a previous post, there is a community for everything in science.
"elementary crystalography, what is this filty slovo? you disappoint me brother , you really do"
little Alex , from a Clockwork Orange.
positively prophetic it was.
I guess I'd better quote it correctly.
What is this filthy slovo? I blush to look at this word. You disappoint me, brother, you do really.' 'But,' he tried, 'but, but. ...
"There's a protein community?" I said to myself as the headline caught my eye...
Jim Prentice must be contemplating a protein tax, what with all the peer reviewed science and all. No more cheap baconator triples for this lot.
For those who don't subscribe to NatureNews, here is a more detailed account:
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/12/21/faking_xray_structures_for_fun_or_profit_or_what.php
Compromised Science/humans?
Who'd've thunk it?
I once lived next door to the Krishna worshiper commune. They woke up at 5 am and circled the building until 7 am singing
Hare, hare Krishna
Hare Krishna, Hare Rama
Hare Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna Hare Hare Krishna
At 7 they finished and proceeded to spread to the city streets to recruit new members and beg for donations.
"The important thing is the science community weeds out these frauds.
Without science, where would we be?"
Copenhagen
I wonder what my protein foot print is......
Kate,
I saw a comment of yours on a Watts thread a few days back where you mentioned an analysis of Canadian temp stations similiar to one done in Russia.
How's that coming along? Any hints?
@ Kate,
Protein is a word biochemists often substitute for enzyme, especially crystallographers. Protein structure is anything made out of amino acids and is extremely extremely important for medical science as mark has explained above.
Some people here are mocking that and should be careful...
As to science, even when done well it is still always controversial. The most famous one is Gastric Ulcers and the link with a bacterial cause (H pylori) discovered by a scientist who when back to basics. Proir to this there was a huge industry developed around gastric surgery. I remember there being a brief time when practitioners of medicine were divided into two camps over this with a lot of mocking being done by those who were supported by the big business aspect of gastric surgery - much like AGW today. I still see patients who have had half their stomach cut with all its complications, when a few simple pills could have cured them. When I think of AGW and it's drastic economic surgery based on little evidence I think of this.
Heck I remember being at work, and having the new guidelines come out for treating severe heart attacks. One minute I would have been sued for not using beta blockers in the acute stage, the next minute I would have been sued for using them.
This is why, as painful as it is, that doctors are being taught to evaluate the evidence behind their practice, because some of it is not as rigorous as you'd like.
Science is not infallible, is always open for challenge. It is never ever "settled".
We are quickly learning the practice of science is as corrupt as any other.
I reject this attack on protein science. These critics are all in the pay of Big Starch!
Langmann: You stumbled on the whole point of posts like this. "It is never ever settled".
Being peer reviewed does not make it right, just published. And being published but making it impossible for other to repeat your findings turns your "peer reviewed paper" into anything but science.
That wasn't the question I was asking. I was asking what other frauds there have been that make this one noteworthy as the "largest ever".
Having not traveled into Central and South America I had not familiarized myself with dengue fever, but have an acquaintance who is visiting back here for Christmas and is recovering from dengue fever. The couple with their three children left Canada to work in an orphanage 20 years ago and now have over 150 orphanages in operation in three Mexican states with thousands of orphans in safe houses and wonderful care. They are truly awesome folks.
Can anyone with some knowledge about what these new findings mean regarding the diagnosis and treatment of the dengue fever and how they impact the current medical treatment guidelines and medications associated with it?
This just makes me grit my teeth as to the level of care our current health providers are "practicing" their medical profession!!!
Thanks in advance for your help!!
I'm not mocking research into proteins (though I admit to mocking the sniffy Journal Nature over their peer-review due diligence).
That said, I'm very proud that my sport eschews "community" in favour of "fancy".
Being badly undereducated in the field of medicine, my protein fancy is a rare done sirloin steak. :)
I am not even close to being a scientist; however, learning of this corruption is disturbing nonetheless.
My question for you scientists is given the false data regarding these proteins and their link to disease and the fact(?) that they are the route to which drugs or vaccinations take to be effective against disease, is it likely that discovering potential cures for sdisease or truly effective drugs have been maligned?
glacierman, I read this yesterday regarding dengue, from a site I frequent... It is in regards to Venezuela and the massive decline in health care there, in this past decade. He studied in the USA, and works in the scientific field, english is not his first language but his point is freedom in Venezuela, not Shakespeare.
http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2009/12/daniels-unwilling-hunger-strike.html
and the socialists in Cuba didn't want anyone to know about their experience with dengue, so as not to keep the Canadian tourists away...
http://marcmasferrer.typepad.com/uncommon_sense/2006/09/column_the_deng.html
I did read some commentary regarding the Cuban soldiers involved in Angola 30 years ago, bringing "type 3" dengue back to Cuba from Africa, while only types 1, 2, 4 were known previously... I can't really comment further on that one...
The "skeptics" have busted out of the GULAG/community imposed by the Red-Green commissars/MSM.
The AGW veil has been rent forever.
Let there be light.
...-
"The Climategate Timeline: 30 years visualized
23 12 2009
The always sharp Jo Nova tips us to this:
Here’s a Spectacular Poster of ClimateGate covering 3 decades
You have to see this to believe it. Look up close and admire the detail while you despair at how long science has been going off the rails."
"To better appreciate the past and what was exposed by the CRU emails, the time-line chart consolidates and chronologically organizes the information uncovered and published about the CRU emails by many researchers along with some related contextual events. That the chart exists at all is yet another example of how skilled experts are flocking in to the skeptics position and dedicating hours of time pro bono because they are passionately motivated to fight against those who try to deceive us."
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
Glacierman, while not offering medical advice directly, I'd say that this scandal would have no real impact on diagnosis or management of dengue fever. Dengue is a cluster of viral borne illnesses the management of which is supportive. WHO has an excellent summary:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/
The impact of this scandal would relate more to the researchers currently attempting protein mapping for the purpose of gaining insights into potential drug treatments for the future. It's reprehensible insofar as it seriously sets back the efforts of legitimate researchers by sending them down a false trail.
Since new medications and vaccines need to pass fairly rigorous clinical trials, the protein work on the dengue virus doesn't specifically effect medicine.
However that being said there have been some pretty serious frauds committed where people have outright made up data in clinical trials. A recent one involved treatment of head injuries which was produced from completely made up data. The more subtle problem is publication bias (where negative results are not published and results that are positive simply due to statistical random error end up making something look real which isn't)
The thing is that in medicine much of what we do is being studied over and over again and replicated, which means that those who commit fraud eventually get caught. Heck even medical students have been known to pick up fraud - the most famous one is in Britain where someone published false data on reimplantation of ectopic pregnancies and a student found the results inconsistent.
With this global warming stuff it appears that no one is allowed to re-examine the evidence. Which in the above example I gave means that the ectopic reimplantation would not have been discovered. As well it appears that negative results may not get published if Jones et al prevent it.
Peer review is a good process, it should not be mocked - but it should be understood. The lamestream media does understand that it doesn't mean results are replicated. And like anything it is open to error, bias, corruption, and fraud.
To help prevent that, Medicine also makes use of meta-analysis which means producing an answer from several publications utilizing different data sets to produce an overall agreement. This is still open to publication bias which I mentioned above.
With this AGW stuff it appears that several publications are using the same data sets...
The AGW crowd could learn a lot from mistakes made in medical research in order to better construct their research process.
so where is the scientific method holed up these days?
not on the left. not on the right. not in the centre.
has it been orphaned and abandoned for myopic special interests? that's my guess.
AGW !!! tobacco harmless !!! ....... same thing.
of course there's a protein community.
...and we're all part of it!! :D
"This just makes me grit my teeth as to the level of care our current health providers are "practicing" their medical profession!!!"
Yeah, ET should look into that kind of "tribalism".
whoops, wrong quote,
"That said, I'm very proud that my sport eschews "community" in favour of "fancy"."
Yeah, ET should look into that kind of "tribalism".