Shattuck Lecture -- Misconduct in Medical Research

In his Shattuck Lecture as published in the Journal (June 3 issue), Congressman John Dingell says that the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House of Representatives, which he chairs, has “looked only at clear-cut cases involving fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism.” He then includes among these cases the investigation by his subcommittee of a 1986 paper published in Cell, by Dr. Thereza Imanishi-Kari and others, including myself. Congressman Dingell's lecture is replete with suggestions that it is an established fact that fabrication was involved in the writing of the paper. He is incorrect, as shown by the published record as well as the statements of the U.S. Attorney for Maryland.