Eliezer Masliah (born 1958or1959 [1] ) is a neuropathologist who was the director of the division of neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging from 2016 to 2024. [2] In September 2024, an investigation exposed image manipulation across 132 of Masliah's research papers, raising concerns about data integrity in studies influencing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's treatments, pharmaceutical patents, and clinical trials.
He received his medical degree in 1982 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. [3] [4] After postdoctoral training at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) he became a tenure-track Professor at UCSD's Department of Neuroscience, with a joint appointment in Pathology. [3] [5] He also directed the neuropathology core of the Shirley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UCSD. [3] He was appointed head of the U.S. National Institute on Aging's Division of Neuroscience in 2016. [6]
He has a prolific body of work — over 800 research papers, much of which is now under scrutiny for containing manipulated images to support different conclusions than the real data. [1] [7] In September 2024, the NIH released a statement that stated he was no longer serving in the role of Director of the Division of Neuroscience. [8]
In September 2024, Masliah's work came under intense scrutiny when an investigation led by the journal Science exposed extensive image manipulation across 132 of his published research papers. [1] [7] [9] A 286 page dossier compiled by forensic analysts and neuroscientists pointed to repeated instances of Western blot manipulation, image reuse, and other forms of digital editing across decades of his research. These allegations involved crucial studies related to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, particularly surrounding the alpha-synuclein protein. [1]
The dossier was sent to the HHS Office of Research Integrity, which requested that the National Institute on Aging (NIA) start a research misconduct investigation in May 2023. [10] The NIA started their investigation in December 2023. [10] In September 2024, the NIH confirmed that Masliah was no longer leading the Division of Neuroscience at the NIA, following the conclusion of their investigation. [11]
The controversy includes papers that have influenced clinical trials and investment decisions in the pharmaceutical industry. 238 active patents cite papers by Masliah that contain anomalous images and data. [1] A notable impact on the pharmaceutical industry concerns the experimental Parkinson's drug prasinezumab, developed by Prothena Biosciences in collaboration with Roche. [12] A Phase II study reported in August 2022 found no statistically significant effect from the drug vs placebo on measures of Parkinson's disease progression. [12] Several papers foundational to the development of prasinezumab were flagged for image manipulation. According to Google patent search, Masliah's name appears on 28 patents, including several patents filed by Prothena Biosciences, as well as earlier patents filed in conjunction with UCSD for drugs that target synucleopathies.
Research trials on the drugs Cerebrolysin and Minzasolmin were also found to be based on questionable data from Masliah's lab. [13] Masliah co-authored 21 papers on the pig brain extract Cerebrolysin, eight of which have been discovered to have issues. [14] Cerebrolysin is marketed as containing "neurotrophic peptides" but researchers using high performance liquid chromatography found that it does not contain peptides, and is largely composed of amino acids and salt, with some trace protein fragments. [15] Some of the fraudulent papers on Cerebrolysin co-authored by Masliah appear to have been quite influential in boosting interest in Cerebrolysin, which is used today in countries like Russia to treat stroke, dementia, and other conditions. [14] Masliah received funding for many of his Cerebrolysin studies from the maker of Cerebrolysin, EVER Pharma, and collaborated with Herbert Moessler, former general manager at EVER Pharma, who incidentally has 19 of his own papers flagged for anomalies. [14] Moessler and Masliah started a company, Neuropore, to investigate the drug Minzasolmin in 2008. [1] A phase II clinical trial on Minzasolmin involving 496 people is currently ongoing and is scheduled to finish in late 2024. [1]
Masliah has not publicly commented on these findings. As of November 2024 he is not listed as part of the National Institute on Aging's staff on their website, [16] although as of November 2024 his name still appeared in NIH's Network Enterprise Directory, suggesting he is still an NIH employee. [17]
Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in the publication of professional scientific research. It is violation of scientific integrity: violation of the scientific method and of research ethics in science, including in the design, conduct, and reporting of research.
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
John Quinn Trojanowski was an American academic research neuroscientist specializing in neurodegeneration. He and his partner, Virginia Man-Yee Lee, MBA, Ph.D., are noted for identifying the roles of three proteins in neurodegenerative diseases: tau in Alzheimer's disease, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, and TDP-43 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration.
Samuel E. Gandy, is a neurologist, cell biologist, Alzheimer's disease (AD) researcher and expert in the metabolism of the sticky substance called amyloid that clogs the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. His team discovered the first drugs that could lower the formation of amyloid.
Marc Trevor Tessier-Lavigne is a Canadian-American neuroscientist who was the eleventh president of Stanford University.
Anders Martin Dale is a prominent neuroscientist and professor of radiology, neurosciences, psychiatry, and cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and is one of the world's leading developers of sophisticated computational neuroimaging techniques. He is the founding Director of the Center for Multimodal Imaging Genetics (CMIG) at UCSD.
Lindsay H. Burns is an American neuroscientist and rower who won a silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. She was a senior vice president of the pharmaceutical company Cassava Sciences until July 2024 and married to its CEO Remi Barbier.
Andrew B. Singleton is a British neurogeneticist currently working in the USA. He was born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands in 1972, where he lived until he was 18 years old. His secondary education was conducted at the Guernsey Grammar School. He earned a first class degree in Applied Physiology from Sunderland University and his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he studied the genetics of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Neurochemical Pathology Unit. He moved to the United States in 1999, where he began working at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida studying the genetic basis of Parkinson's disease, ataxia, and dystonia. He moved to the National Institutes of Health in 2001 to head the newly formed Molecular Genetics unit within the Laboratory of Neurogenetics. In 2006 he took over as Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and became an NIH Distinguished Investigator in the intramural program at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in 2017. In 2020 he stepped down as the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and became the Acting Director of the newly formed Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias at the NIA. In 2021 he became the Director of CARD.
Suh Yoo-hun is a South Korean neuroscientist. His researches focus on neurodegeneration, especially on the discovery of genes and therapies for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) was founded at University of California San Diego in 1991 and coordinates clinical trials of candidate treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
Athira Pharma is a late clinical stage American biopharmaceutical company developing small molecules to restore neuronal health and stop the neurodegeneration brought on by diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The company's lead candidate, ATH-1017, is in human studies for Alzheimer's disease as of 2021.
Phenserine is a synthetic drug which has been investigated as a medication to treat Alzheimer's disease (AD), as the drug exhibits neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects.
Simufilam (PTI-125) is an experimental medication for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It was being developed by the American pharmaceutical firm Cassava Sciences. Development of simufilam was discontinued in November 2024 after it failed to show clinical benefit during its phase III clinical trials.
Cassava Sciences is an American pharmaceutical company based in Austin, Texas. The company was developing simufilam, an oral-tablet drug candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Development of simufilam was discontinued in November 2024 after it failed to show clinical benefit in phase III clinical trials.
Sylvain E. Lesné is a French neuroscientist and associate professor at the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School, known for his research into Alzheimer's disease. He is the primary author of a controversial 2006 Nature paper, "A specific amyloid-β protein assembly in the brain impairs memory". Lesné's work in the 2006 publication and others has been investigated since June 2022 on charges that he manipulated images to inflate the role of Aβ*56 in Alzheimer's. Retracted in 2024, the paper was foundational in the hypothesis that one specific toxic oligomer of the amyloid beta protein, known as Aβ*56, caused memory impairment in Alzheimer's, aligned with the prevailing amyloid hypothesis.
Keenan A. Walker, Ph.D., directs the Multimodal Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease unit in the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging. His research includes studies on Alzheimer's disease.
Prasinezumab is an anti-α-synuclein drug acting as a monoclonal antibody against α-synuclein which is under development for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. No significant effect on disease progression was seen in a 52-week phase 2 clinical trial. In any case, the trial was extended and development of the drug continues. There have been concerns about research misconduct and data fabrication relevant to prasinezumab. As of May 2024, prasinezumab is in phase 2 clinical trials for Parkinson's disease. It is under development by Prothena Biosciences and Roche.
Gary E. Gibson is an American neuroscientist specializing in mitochondrial biology and metabolic dysfunction related to neurodegeneration. He serves as the Lab Director of the Laboratory for Mitochondrial Biology and Metabolic Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration at the Burke Neurological Institute and holds the position of Professor of Neuroscience with tenure at the Brain and Mind Research Institute of Weill Cornell Medicine. He also served as associate director of the Dementia Research Service.
Amy S. Kelley is an American geriatrician and palliative care specialist serving as the deputy director of the National Institute on Aging since 2022. She was previously the Hermann Merkin Professor in Palliative Care at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Academics | |
