Academia Sinica yesterday approved the resignation of distinguished research fellow Chen Ching-shih (陳慶士) after news of research misconduct in eight of his published papers was made public by the Ohio State University, where he previously served as a cancer researcher.
Academia Sinica said in a statement that it is sorry to hear about the incident, but added that Chen’s misconduct occurred before he became head of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biological Chemistry in August 2014.
The institution’s Research Ethics Committee would still look into work he performed while serving at the academy, the statement added.
Chen’s resignation from the Academia Sinica comes after academic journal Science and the university issued separate reports on Friday regarding the findings of research misconduct that led to his resignation as a cancer researcher from the university last year.
The reports said the investigation found Chen had “intentionally committed research misconduct” in 14 instances in eight journal articles, and was guilty of “deviating from the accepted practices of image handling and figure generation and intentionally falsifying data.”
Chen admitted to the charges and resigned in September last year, the university said.
The university said it has requested an “immediate retraction” of the papers, published between 2006 and 2014, that contain the fabricated data.
However, the implications of the misconduct go beyond unreliable academic papers, as Chen’s work had raised millions of US dollars in funding and led to multiple patents and the establishment of two compounds in clinical trials.
The university said it immediately shut down a clinical trial of one of Chen’s anti-cancer agents that Arno Therapeutics Inc had been conducting after obtaining exclusive rights to test the agents.
A spokesperson for the company said that issues with Chen’s papers had “zero impact” on its drug development efforts, Science said.
The university said it “hired an external consultant who validated that Chen’s research misconduct did not affect the Arno licensed compounds developed in his lab.”
“Patient safety was never compromised,” the university’s statement said.
The university said it has forwarded the investigation to federal authorities, meaning Chen could continue to be investigated for his actions.
Academia Sinica first became aware of the matter about a year ago, but it had limited access to Chen’s questionable articles because the university did not reveal its investigation on its Web site until Friday, Academia Sinica Central Academic Advisory Committee executive secretary Henry Sun (孫以瀚) said yesterday.
This is the worst punishment a Taiwanese academic has ever received from a foreign institution, dealing a heavy blow to the nation’s image in international academia, Sun said.
Sun quoted Chen as saying that his laboratory staff “beautified” data to make their research look better, and that he was responsible for lax supervision.
Yesterday morning, Chen’s profile was accessible on the Institute of Biological Chemistry’s Web site, but it was later taken down after Chen tendered his verbal resignation to Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智).
Meanwhile, China Medical University, where Chen in February temporarily served as the director of its Institute of New Drug Development, yesterday said it is unclear about the matter and is collecting information about the case.
Before Chen returned to Taiwan to serve as director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry in August 2014 — a position he held until August last year — he had taught at the Ohio State University’s College of Pharmacy, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Kentucky.
Specializing in medicinal chemistry, cancer studies, biological chemistry and translational medicine, Chen has received research awards from the US Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Hearst Foundation, and is a fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In April last year, he and National Cheng Kung University researchers found a relation between vitamin E and cancer prevention, and created an anti-tumor agent that is 20 times more efficient than previous ones, which was then considered a potential opportunity to develop a new anti-cancer drug.
EIGHT-YEAR WINDOW: Avril Haines said that Beijing is closely watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Moscow’s actions have not sped up Beijing’s timeline The threat posed by China to Taiwan until 2030 is “critical,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday while testifying on worldwide threats at a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s critical, or acute,” Haines said when asked by US Senator Josh Hawley if she viewed the threat facing Taiwan to be acute from now until 2030. “It’s our view that they [China] are working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention,” she said, without
NO CONSENSUS YET: Local governments and the CECC have agreed to change the ‘3+4’ self-isolation policy, but are still mulling what to replace it with The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local governments have agreed to ease restrictions on close contacts of COVID-19 cases, although the details are still being discussed, the center said yesterday. The discussions follow Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday approving a proposal to shorten the “3+4” policy — three days of home isolation followed by four days of self-disease prevention — for close contacts who have received booster doses. “We did not reach a consensus on how to revise the current restrictions, but we all agreed that the administrative burden must be reduced and the intensity of restrictions must be eased,
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate
‘DAMOCLES SWORD’: An Italian missionary said the arrest of cardinal Zen is a blow for the church in Hong Kong, China and the world, signaling great danger ahead China yesterday defended the arrest of a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, a move that triggered international outrage and deepened concerns over Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in the territory. Retired cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君), one of the most senior Catholic clerics in Asia, was among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested on Wednesday for “colluding with foreign forces.” Pop singer Denise Ho (何韻詩), veteran barrister Margaret Ng (吳靄儀) and cultural studies academic Hui Po-keung (許寶強) were also arrested, the latter as he attempted to fly to Europe to take up an academic post. Cyd Ho (何秀蘭), a democracy