Reflection on Responsible Conduct in Research
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007This week the program focused on informing us about responsibility in research conduct. We were assigned to read a NY Times Magazine article entitled “An Unwelcome Discovery” by Jeneen Interlandi. On Wednesday, we saw the movie “And the Band Played On” about the arrival of the AIDS epidemic. Finally on Friday afternoon we attended a faculty seminar about research ethics lectured by Dave McClay. My first reaction when I read the NY Times article was how could Poehlman, a prominent scientist recognized around the world for his research, have forged fake data for nearly 10 years without anyone questioning his work. Surely someone, whether a colleague in the lab next door or a postdoc working in his lab, would have sooner recognized his scientific fraud? However, the question should be addressing not whether someone noticed but if there was anyone willing to actually report it? Walter DeNino, the young lab technician who brought Poehlman’s case to officials, had talked previously with others who worked in the lab about discrepancies in Poehlman’s data and found that they too believed something was not right. Though the ethically correct decision would have been to consult someone about Poehlman’s false data, by doing so, they would put their own careers at stake if they were wrong. When approached by DeNino, Dwight Matthews, a scientist who shared a lab space with Poehlman, bluntly put it, “Your career will be ruined because no one is going to protect you”.
In a world where people are constantly competing and hoping to be the “first” in their field of expertise, sacrifices whether good or bad are made, including the decision to do what’s ethically right. In “And the Band Played On”, this issue appeared again, as controversy arose when Dr. Robert Gallo of the US claimed to be the first to identify the AIDS virus when the French at Pasteur Institute had previously discovered the identical virus. Poehlman and Gallo (as depicted in the movie) appear to have both breached proper conduct in research by forging/stealing respectively their results to gain federal grants and recognition. But can they be completely blamed? As I have learned a career in research is not as steady a job as it may appear. As my mentor explained, the P.I. spends countless hours writing grant proposals to secure the money necessary to conduct new experiments and keep his or her lab running. I heard just a few weeks ago, a nearby lab which had been around for many years was forced to shut down due to lack of money. And to think they could have been on their way to finding the next therapy to some disease but because of money and competition they were deprived of that chance. It’s just like in the movie when the Centers for Disease Control tried hard to secure grants to support preliminary research on AIDS but did not even receive enough money to buy an electron microscope. As it is there is not enough money secured for research, so when people like Poehlman or Gallo abuse the system, they essentially hurt other researchers from finding the next big discovery.
But going back to ethics, deciding between doing what’s right and putting your career on the line is an extremely difficult choice scientists must face everyday and those who do follow through with upholding responsible conduct in the lab, whether they produce Nobel-prize winning discoveries or not, should be lauded for their efforts. In response to McClay’s lecture, I thought he made a very good point about how irresponsible conduct in research is most of the time the result of carelessness, laziness, ignorance, etc. instead of intentional fabrication/plagiarizing. Those forms of irresponsible conduct target researchers like us students who are having our first experience in the lab. So while it might not be our intention to alter the results of an experiment, we must be alert of our actions while at the bench and make sure to always ask our mentors questions if we’re unsure of something. My main takeway from the article, movie, and seminar were that one should be aware of the consequences of their actions in the lab in order to prevent ourselves from hurting others in the long run.