Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s research is a cesspool of faked results and moneygrubbing, according to this hard-hitting exposé. Science magazine journalist Piller (Gene Wars) delves into two scandals that rocked the medical establishment in recent years: CUNY neuropharmacologist Hoau-Yen Wang’s alleged use of doctored “western blot” gels—which visually display proteins—in experiments seeming to show that the drug simufilam revives dead brain cells, and neuroscientist Sylvain Lesné’s retraction of the 2006 paper that first linked Alzheimer’s to an “amyloid-beta” protein after allegations that it was likewise based on doctored western blot gels. Piller first follows the story from the point of view of Matthew Schrag, a Vanderbilt University neurologist and amyloid skeptic who led the informally organized team of researchers that blew the whistle on Wang’s and Lesné’s doctored blots. He then ventures further afield, profiling more members of what he dubs the “amyloid mafia”—a clique of hotshot scientists, journal editors, and FDA officials who, Piller contends, discourage other lines of Alzheimer’s research because of their financial interests in the amyloid hypothesis. At times, Piller’s narrative reads like a noirish detective story, complete with tense conversations with scientists who seem to be working an angle rather than facing facts (“The reason you are here is that I’ve forgiven you,” says one researcher whose fraudulent work Piller exposed in Science). It’s a troubling look at the corruption of Big Science. (Feb.)