Student Research at Duke

The theme of last week’s seminars/movie was responsible conduct in research. We were each asked to reflect on the week.

I found Colleen Denny’s lecture to be helpful in setting up the foundation of what responsible conduct means. However, since I had to seek IRB approval for a psychology experiment I conducted in high school and have volunteered in a hospital for some time and had to deal with HIPAA, I didn’t gain anything new from the lecture (which is fine; I’m sure there were people that learned something from it). The lecture brought to mind the research topic I chose for our end-of-year presentations/papers in AP Euro senion year- I chose to look at medical experiments conducted by the Nazis. Colleen alluded to this.

Mengele, or “the angel of death,” experimented with the effects of chloroform, dwarves, twins, and gas chambers/crematoriums. You can read about what Eva Kor had to tell CNN about her experience here. Clauberg and others were concerned with chemical tests and x-rays and their effect on reproductive organs and also on one-shot sterilization. Clauberg also experimented with castration. Oberheuser (a female) inflicted deliberate wounds to try to study the healing process (supposedly)- she simulated combat wounds and would rub foreign materials into inflicted wounds. She also studied children, dissecting them to understand anatomy better. Dr. Brandt, Hitler’s own physician, began euthanasia with Schumann…except in this twisted instance, the people never consented to being killed. Rather, different people in nursing homes, asylums, and hospitals were deemed “useless eaters” and murdered. Dr. Kremer studied the ffects of starvation and kept a diary of his rather detailed notes on everyday life in a concentration camp, including the gassing process. The German Air Force conducted freezing and thawing experiments as well as high altitude experiments. Regeneration experiments were also conducted as well as research on the effects of infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid, hepititis, and TB, incendiary bombs, and chemical warfare.

After all this, the Nuremberg Code was written, which included things Colleen talked about, such as informed consent, proper qualifications on the researcher’s part, animal trials occurring first, an avoidance of suffering, and the opportunity for a participant to end a study at any time. Clearly, these all arose because of the misconduct during WWII. However, I still find it surprising that there aren’t a set of rules anywhere that dictate how research is to be conducted responsibly.

The movie And the Band Played On had a definite impact on me. (It was about the AIDS outbreak during Reagan’s time and the mishandling and misconduct which happened while addressing the need to figure out what was causing it). However, I found myself even more outraged at the Reagan administration than with Robert Gallo. How could an administration just stand by while an epidemic broke out and not even provide money to help fund research?? I was shocked at how little the CDC had to work with. Reaganomics was bad enough- he severely hurt the economy with that- but not even bothering to mention a disease because it only affected homosexuals?! That’s ridiculous. There were many other people in the movie I would have liked to smack some sense into due to their stubborn nature and underestimation of what was to come. I’m sure that the movie was biased in its presentation of what really happened though. Robert Gallo’s misconduct made me question why some people go into science. I used to put researchers on pedestals thinking they all truly care about what they’re finding out and that other researchers can appreciate the significance of what one may find. Granted, that was when I was more idealistic, and I know now that that is certainly not the case.

McClay’s lecture contained stories of the ridiculous measures some reseachers have gone to in order to make themselves seem more important (such as coloring in fur with a marker..who does that? And why would someone supposedly smart use a *marker?* Why wouldn’t they use..I don’t know..hair dye or something less likely to get them caught? Silly..). I was surprised to learn from him that holding reagents in the lab was unethical while holding all notes in the lab was actually ethical. I feel like we should learn more about these types of rules..frankly, I had no idea.

In other news, Andrew and I presented at our lab meeting on Friday. It was a good experience that will help for our chalk talk this week. Speaking of which, I’m going to go work on now.