Wellcome Trust Sets out Fresh Misconduct Standards

news Wellcome Trust sets out fresh Academies called to task over human misconduct standards cloning débâcle Laura Bonetta, Washington The US National Academies has come under fire for inviting researchers who plan to clone human beings to a forum

WELLCOME TRUST WELLCOME held in Washington on 7 August. Severino Antinori, director of the International Associated Research Institute for Human Reproduction in Rome, and Panos Zavos, director of the Andrology Institute of America in Kentucky, used the meeting to announce plans to start cloning experiments in November. Television broadcasts subsequently led with the news in both the United States and Europe. Also present was Brigitte Boisselier, scientific director of Clonaid, a company set up by the Raelian sect, which intends to clone humans. “The academies should only have the best, most credible, and authoritative scientists to present data,” argues David Mangus, a bioethicist at the University of Standard bearer: the Wellcome Trust has released draft guidelines for handling scientific misconduct. Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Alan Trounson, deputy director of the Erica Klarreich, London “This is the biggest thing to happen in the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Research institutes seeking grants from the field of scientific misconduct in the United Development in Clayton, Australia, adds Wellcome Trust will soon have to adhere to a Kingdom for years,” says Drummond Rennie, that media attention may help to “attract new set of standards for scientific conduct. deputy editor of the Journal of the American money and thereafter the skills to conduct And in the absence of government action on Medical Association and an expert on scien- this unfortunate experiment”. research misconduct, observers say, the tific misconduct in Europe. “I’m impressed Debbie Stine, an academies official, charitable trust’s guidelines are likely to set a by this document’s decisiveness, thoughtful- defended the invitation, saying that the de facto standard for British universities. ness and clarity.” speakers had scientific credentials and A draft of the guidelines, issued for com- The extent of the Wellcome Trust’s sup- both sides should be represented. But ment on 26 July, defines good science prac- port for biomedical research is likely to turn other participants say the would-be tice and sets out procedures for handling its guidelines into de facto national guide- cloners gave no details of what they are cases of misconduct, such as plagiarism and lines, Rennie says. Terry agrees: “I doubt that doing, and no real dialogue took place. falsification of data. But in their current form, universities will institute a system that only There is also concern that the tidal critics point out, they do little to protect applies to Trust researchers,”he says. wave of media coverage blurred the people who blow the whistle on misconduct. In December 2000, the European Science distinction between therapeutic cloning The trust, which funds nearly 20% of Foundation encouraged scientific societies — which many scientists support — and Britain’s biomedical research, plans to insist to press for the creation of national bodies to reproductive cloning. that all institutions receiving its grants investigate misconduct. Denmark is the only The forum was part of a fact-finding adhere to the standards from October 2002. European nation that has such a body. process for an academy panel that will Robert Terry, a senior policy adviser at But Marcus De Ville, a spokesman for the report to Congress next month. The the trust, says the peer-review process cannot UK Office of Science and Technology, says House of Representatives has passed a bill prevent scientific misconduct. “This issue there are no plans to create one in Britain. “It that bans human cloning, and the Senate has been discussed for a while in Britain, but is for the scientific body as a whole to regulate will soon consider similar legislation. hasn’t moved much forward,” he says. “We itself,” he says. “The peer-review process is felt we had to make our own position clear.” the system which verifies the credibility of The Medical Research Council, Britain’s scientific research, and that process works.” main publicly funded biomedical granting While broadly welcoming the guidelines, agency, expects institutions to investigate Herbert Arst, a professor of microbial genet- allegations concerning their own researchers. ics at Imperial College in London, says they The Wellcome Trust says it will carry out its offer inadequate protection to people who own investigations in “exceptional cases”, make allegations. Whistle-blowers are often SHAWN THEW/GETTY IMAGES THEW/GETTY SHAWN such as when it feels its reputation is at stake. stigmatized in the scientific community and The United Kingdom has no national may face expensive libel suits, he says, caus- body to investigate misconduct cases, and ing misconduct to go unreported. each of the six research councils, which distri- Terry responds that the final Wellcome Three of a kind: Severino Antinori (left), bute government grant money to scientists, Trust guidelines may include stronger pro- Brigitte Boisselier and Panos Zavos . has its own guidelines for universities. tection for whistle-blowers.