The deadly legacy of a stem cell charlatan

Paolo Macchiarini misled the world over his breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, but why did most of the institutions that supported him bear no responsibility for hosting a rogue stem cell surgeon? It’s time for them to launch full and independent investigations, argue John Rasko and Carl Power

By 2008 it looked like a medical revolution was under way. Before us lay a new world, where any injured organ could be replaced with one custom-made in the laboratory. Leading us there was the charismatic Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who’d begun replacing damaged windpipes with tissue engineered ones. Each was made of a scaffold and seeded with the patients’ own stem cells, which were meant to turn it into a living, functioning organ. The era of “regenerative medicine” was upon us.

But early 2016 woke us from this dream. Swedish television broadcast Experimenten , a blistering three part investigation into Macchiarini,1 exposing him as a charlatan whose engineered windpipes did more harm than good, something he’d lied about for years. The scandal ruined his career and shook his Swedish employer, the Karolinska Institute, to its very foundations.2 Home to the Nobel Prize in medicine, this illustrious university was dubbed by some as the “Chernobyl of ethics.”

The Karolinska later found Macchiarini guilty of scientific misconduct and called for several of his articles to be retracted.3 Many commentators expected that he would finish his career behind bars for the deaths of his three Karolinska patients, but that hasn’t happened. After years of delay a Swedish court acquitted Macchiarini of five of the six charges against him, convicting him of harming just one person through negligence. The punishment? A suspended sentence of two years’ probation. Macchiarini’s lawyer was so pleased he dubbed it a “five-sixths victory.” Not that the case is …

Related Keywords

Sweden ,Spain ,United Kingdom ,Barcelona ,Comunidad Autonoma De Cataluna ,Sydney ,New South Wales ,Australia ,Italy ,University College ,London ,City Of ,Russia ,Stockholm ,Italian ,Swedish ,Australian ,Shauna Davison ,Ciaran Finn Lynch ,Martin Birchall ,Laureano Molins ,Paolo Macchiarini ,Claudia Castillo ,Johnej Rasko ,John Rasko ,Anders Hamsten ,Aavec Bio ,Directions In Leukaemia Research Board Of Directors ,Lancet Group ,Department Of Cell ,Committee On Publication Ethics ,University College London Hospital ,Clinical Ethics Service ,Cure The Future Foundation ,Human Research Ethics Committee ,Pfizer ,Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee ,University Of Sydney ,University College London ,Karolinska Institute ,Australian Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Board ,National Transplant Centre ,Careggi University Hospital ,Novartis ,Careggi University Hospital Florence ,Karolinska University Hospital ,Office Of The Gene Technology Regulator ,Nobel Prize ,Great Ormond Street ,Keziah Shorten ,Professor Birchall ,Hospital Clinic Barcelona ,College London ,Professor Martin ,University Hospital ,Swedish National Board ,Research Misconduct ,Ormond Street Hospital ,College London Hospital ,General Medical Council ,Publication Ethics ,Molecular Therapies ,Royal Prince Alfred Hospital ,Centenary Institute ,Carl Power ,Flesh Made New ,Unnatural History ,Broken Promise ,Stem Cells ,Sydney Local Health District ,Future Foundation ,Medical Scientific Advisory Board ,Rare Voices Australia ,New Directions ,Leukaemia Research Board ,Gene Technology Regulator ,Woke Pharmaceutical ,Bluebird Bio ,Therapeutic Innovation Australia ,Woke Pharmaceuticals ,Kennerton Capital ,