A new scandal in the "Macchiarini case"

Two professors may leave the Nobel Assembly because of the scandal

Lyudmila Bozhko, RIA Novosti

Two Swedish professors have been asked to leave their jobs at the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, which annually awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, because of the scandal with the operations of Italian surgeon Paolo Makiarini, the Swedish news agency TT reports.

"The damage to trust is so great that we will call on them to resign from the Nobel Assembly," the secretary of the Nobel Committee (the working body of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute) told TT Thomas Perlmann.

One of the former heads of the Karolinska Institute, Harriet Wallberg, and the former rector of the Karolinska Institute, Anders Hamsten, were invited to leave their jobs at the Nobel Assembly. They have been members of the Nobel Assembly for many years, and their credibility may be in doubt due to the fact that the professors were also involved in hiring Makiarini Institute.

Both professors, according to Perlmann, because of the "Makiarini case" did not participate in the work on the consideration of candidates for the Nobel Prize in 2016, and the appeal to them with a proposal to resign is one of the further steps in restoring confidence in the Nobel Assembly and the Karolinska Institute.

The Nobel Assembly was already abandoned earlier this year by three of its members, among them, in particular, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute, Urban Lendal. All of them were connected with the scandalous operations of an Italian surgeon.

Makiarini's surgeries to replace the damaged trachea with a polymer skeleton studded with stem cells brought him worldwide fame and at the same time led to accusations of his violation of scientific norms, as well as to the death of patients and complications in their health. Makiarini operated in Stockholm from 2011 to 2013.

In 2014, the Karolinska Institute, where the Italian surgeon worked, conducted an investigation into the scientific method of Makiarini. Upon completion of the work in August 2015, the Karolinska Institute reported that there was no evidence of scientific deception in the surgeon's activities. But the institute explained at the time that people were operated on by people who were terminally ill, and that they were no longer carried out since 2013.

In Sweden, the surgeon performed, in particular, three operations on patients from the USA, Iceland and Turkey. Two of the operated died. He also performed surgeries in Russia in Krasnodar, where there is also a fatal case. The last operation in Russia was performed in June 2014.

However, the story of Makiarini reminded of itself again in January of this year, when the documentary "Experiment" was shown on Swedish television SVT. The investigation of the journalists showed that the operations carried out were not based on either preliminary experiments on animals, or the detailed condition of the people who had already been operated on. Footage of inflamed organs of patients after surgery, poorly fixed plastic trachea with numerous complications, caused a wide resonance in the country and strong reactions among scientists in Sweden.

Many saw the Makiarini story as a serious threat to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which is awarded annually at the Karolinska Institute. Makiarini collaborated with the Karolinska Institute from 2010 until 2016, but after media reports, the Swedish institute terminated the contract with the surgeon and no longer cooperates with him.

In the spring of 2015, the Swedish prosecutor's office launched an investigation into three operations performed by Makiarini in the country, and in June 2016 formally charged the Italian surgeon with suspicion of the unintentional death of patients.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  07.09.2016