Red wine researcher accused of

I found this information in the 20 January, 2012 issue of Science on p. 271. After a 3 year investigation that has come to a close by the University of Connecticut Health center in Farmington, on January 11 the school alleged that Dipak Das is guilty of 145 counts of falsification and fabrication data. The university sent a 60000 page report to the federal Office of Research Integrity The university has also declined to accept $US 890000 in federal funding for Das.

Das worked with resveratrol found in red wine, and dozens of papers co-authored by Das assert that resveratrol protects the heart. The university has begun dismissal proceedings. Das is of Indian descent and claims that racism is behind the allegations.

I do not follow the technical literature concerning this field of research, so I have no opinion about the merits of the long report or, if it happens to be true, how the view of resveratrol and red wine as a heart protector will be changed. I do know that I am not going to read a 60000 page report, even if it is available.

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As a fellow resveratrol researcher, I can add the following comments. The biggest name in the field, David Sinclair of Harvard Medical, when asked to comment on the scandal, responded that he'd never heard of Das. This is indicative of his niche status within the field. His data, now completely discredited, bore on the role of resveratrol in preventing heart disease. OTOH, the role of resveratrol in combating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and diabetes has not, to my knowledge, been in the least affected. Parenthetically, Dr. Sinclair's famous results showing that resveratrol increased the activity of SirT1, an enzyme implicated in life extension, has been shown to be artifactual, too (but not fraudulent).

Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton

As a fellow resveratrol researcher, I can add the following comments. The biggest name in the field, David Sinclair of Harvard Medical, when asked to comment on the scandal, responded that he'd never heard of Das. This is indicative of his niche status within the field. His data, now completely discredited, bore on the role of resveratrol in preventing heart disease. OTOH, the role of resveratrol in combating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer and diabetes has not, to my knowledge, been in the least affected. Parenthetically, Dr. Sinclair's famous results showing that resveratrol increased the activity of SirT1, an enzyme implicated in life extension, has been shown to be artifactual, too (but not fraudulent).

Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton

  • This is one paper by one researcher. It has allegedly false results.

Read the hundreds of other papers, especially those that appear in "PubMed", the publication arm of the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health.

PubMed papers are generally reliable.

This reference will give you about 100+ papers on the subject:

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Earle Jones

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