Paolo Macchiarini

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Paolo Macchiarini (born August 22, 1958 in Basel ) is an Italian surgeon and researcher in the field of regenerative medicine who initially caused a sensation with the development of artificial trachea made from stem cells . In 2016, however, he was exposed as a research fraud and the alleged success reports published in professional journals were declared invalid. The scandal shook the credibility of the renowned Swedish Karolinska Institute (seat of the Nobel Prize Committee), where he had mainly worked from 2010 to 2016.

Career

Macchiarini was born in Switzerland, his parents are Italian. He is or was married since 1986 and has two children. He attended school in Basel and studied in Pisa and (according to his own statements) from 1990 onwards on a fellowship in Birmingham (Alabama) . Then he did research and did his doctorate in Besançon (France), and was finally appointed to the University of Paris-South . With changing dates, he claims to have held full professorships in Hanover and Barcelona later , which he did not prove. This résumé should be heavily embellished. According to research by Vanity Fair magazine, Macchiarini also acted like a con man in his private life, hiding his marriage and inventing acquaintances with numerous famous people and even a friendship with Pope Francis .

Macchiarini had worked to treat trachea from deceased donors and those made of plastic with stem cells from the recipient so that they no longer cause a rejection reaction . The seemingly successful transplant of such a trachea on a 30-year-old Spanish woman in 2008 made headlines. Macchiarini received calls from all over the world. After a brief interlude in Florence, he took up positions in Stockholm and in Krasnodar (State University of the Kuban Region, Russia) in 2010 .

Falsified specialist publications

The scientific publications, however, were falsified, they suppressed side effects and concealed the fact that seven of the eight patients operated on in this way had died after a short time. In 2014, international scientists expressed massive doubts about the work, including in particular the surgeon Pierre Delaere, who works at the KU Leuven . This criticism was rejected by the management of the Karolinska Institute; as a result, critical scientists are said to have been subjected to reprisals within the institute.

Macchiarini were apparently no longer permitted to operate on humans in Stockholm from 2013 onwards. However, he remained a professor and, as an internationally respected luminary, was able to operate on other patients abroad (USA, UK, Russia and South Africa), up to the (unconfirmed) total of 18 patients. The Karolinska Institute repeatedly trusted him, most recently in August 2015. At the beginning of 2016, however, those responsible had to reopen the case under pressure from the media. The independent investigation now carried out showed that, contrary to the publications, the treatment was unsuccessful. Also, no authority or ethics committee approved the experiments. The interventions were not registered as a clinical study , but instead declared as "compassionate use" ( attempts at healing ). Even the hiring and the renewal of Macchiarini's employment contract were carried out without due care.

The Secretary General of the Nobel Committee Urban Lendahl resigned in connection with the scandal. The Vice Chancellors of the Karolinska Institute Anders Hamsten and Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson were also dismissed. The Swedish Ministry of Science announced that the entire institute management would be replaced. Macchiarini was dismissed without notice in May 2017.

In spring 2017, all funding was withdrawn from him in Russia and his contract with the Kazan Federal University was terminated.

Since 2017, the surgeon has been under criminal investigation in Italy and Sweden for assault and negligent homicide. In 2012, Italian newspapers reported that Machiarini was suspected of extorting large sums of money from patients. These allegations were later not taken up.

Broadcast reports

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Expert Group on Scientific Misconduct , press
    release of October 27, 2017     Six papers by disgraced surgeon should be retracted, report concludes. On: sciencemag.org of October 30, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c Adam Ciralsky: The celebrity surgeon who used love, money, and the pope to scam to NB. Vanity Fair, January 5, 2016 (accessed September 3, 2017)
  3. ↑ P. Macchiarini, P. Jungebluth u. a .: Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. In: Lancet. Volume 372, Number 9655, December 2008, pp. 2023-2030, doi : 10.1016 / S0140-6736 (08) 61598-6 , PMID 19022496 .
  4. ↑ Doctors rescue patient with cultivated windpipe. Spiegel online, November 19, 2008 (accessed September 3, 2017)
  5. ^ PR Delaere, R. Hermans: Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway. In: Lancet. Volume 373, Number 9665, February 2009, pp. 717-718, doi : 10.1016 / S0140-6736 (09) 60429-3 , PMID 19249622 .
  6. ↑ Pierre Delaere: Macchiarini and the tracheal regeneration scandal. Open letter, April 2, 2016 (accessed September 3, 2017)
  7. ↑ John Rasko and Carl Power: Dr Con Man: the rise and fall of a celebrity scientist who fooled almost everyone. The Guardian, September 1, 2017
  8. ↑ Leonid Schneider (blog "forbetterscience.com"), June 16, 2017: Macchiarini's trachea transplant patients: the full list. (accessed September 3, 2017)
  9. ^ Bosses Lindquist: Experiments. ("The Experiments") Three-part television documentary, broadcast on Sveriges Television VT1 January 13-27, 2016
  10. ^ Sten Heckscher, Ingrid Carlberg, Carl Gahmberg : Karolinska Institutet and the Macchiarini case. Summary in English and Swedish. Karolinska Institute, September 2016 (PDF)
  11. ^ Two members of the Nobel Prize Assembly dismissed. Tagesspiegel, September 8, 2016
  12. ↑ Martin Enserink: Karolinska Institute fires fall star surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. sciencemag.org, May 23, 2017
  13. ↑ Alla Astakhova: Superstar surgeon fired, again, this time in Russia. sciencemag.org, May 16, 2017
  14. ^ William Kremer: Paolo Macchiarini: A surgeon's downfall. BBC News, September 10, 2016
  15. ^ Simone Innocenti: Arrestato il superchirurgo Macchiarini "Approfittava della fragilità dei malati". Corriere della Sera, September 27, 2012 (in Italian)
personal data
SURNAME Macchiarini, Paolo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian surgeon
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel