![]() NIH spent about $1.6 billion on projects that mention amyloids in this fiscal year, about half its overall Alzheimer’s funding. Yet Aβ still dominates research and drug development. Hundreds of clinical trials of amyloidtargeted therapies have yielded few glimmers of promise, however only the underwhelming Aduhelm has gained FDA approval. Stopping amyloid deposits became the most plausible therapeutic strategy. ![]() To many scientists, it seemed clear that Aβ buildup sets off a cascade of damage and dysfunction in neurons, causing dementia. And in 1991, researchers traced family-linked Alzheimer’s to mutations in the gene for a precursor protein from which amyloid derives. In 1984, Aβ was identified as the main component of the plaques. “One of its biggest mysteries is also its most distinctive feature: the plaques and other protein deposits that German pathologist Alois Alzheimer first saw in 1906 in the brain of a deceased dementia patient. The article goes on to narrate how Schrag exposed Lesné’s fraud and reported it to NIH, with special focus on Lesne’s seminal paper in Nature from 2006, which Science says was decisive for all of last years’ Alzheimer’s research: None of those parties has *any* incentive to correct the published research. Universities, funders, journals, authors – all are (usually) notified by and/or us anon "peers." ![]() The crazy thing is… this set of circumstances is the norm. Cassava however are cartoonishly inept fraudsters, and the affair only shows how stupid and incompetent everyone around them was, not just investors and regulatory officials, but also the academic peer community including journal editors. ![]() Elisabeth Bik soon took over the investigation, found more image forgery, plus falsified clinical trial data, and thus made herself the main target of hateful and misogynous attacks on social media. He is the expert who exposed the Cassava Sciences fraud, a biotech start-up pushing a bullshit Alzheimer’s drug using fake western blots, as referenced in the short sellers’ report to the FDA. ![]() The image integrity sleuth in the centre of the Science story is Matthew Schrag, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt studying Alzheimer’s. Were two separate, major lines of Alzheimer’s research tainted by image fabrication, with far-reaching implications for the field? I take a deep look for ![]()
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