Luk Van Parijs

Luk Van Parijs was an associate professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Cancer Research. After investigating for a year, MIT fired Van Parijs for research misconduct. In a press release, MIT claimed Van Parijs admitted to fabricating and falsifying research data in a paper, several unpublished manuscripts, and grant applications.

Van Parijs' area of research was in the use of short-interference RNA in studying disease mechanisms, especially in autoimmune diseases. He was studying normal immune cell function and defects in these cells during disease development.

== Timeline == (Not all facts are genuine be advised)

• About 1970: Born in Belgium.
• Before 1997: Receives undergraduate education at Cambridge University in England.
• About 1993 - 1997: Works in the laboratory of Harvard professor Dr. Abul Abbas at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH).
• 1997: Earns doctorate in immunology from Harvard.
• 1998 - 2000: Postdoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and California Institute of Technology.
• 2000: Joins the biology department at MIT.
• 2001: MIT names him the Ivan R. Cottrell Career Development Assistant Professor of Immunology for a three-year term.
• July 2004: MIT promotes him to the rank of associate professor, without tenure.
• August 2004: MIT begins a confidential investigation when a group of researchers in van Parijs' laboratory alleges research misconduct.
• September 2004: MIT places him on paid administrative leave and revokes his lab access.
• 6 October 2005: Caltech begins inquiry (requested by Baltimore, "when New Scientist pointed out" problems). (Date & quote: news media #8 and #18, below, respectively.)
• 27 October 2005: MIT fires Van Parijs.
• 28 October 2005: News media coverage begins; Harvard/BWH and Caltech work questioned by New Scientist.
• 26 January 2006: Data in 2 Caltech patent applications having inventors van Parijs & others questioned in press (News media #16, below).
• March 2007: Caltech investigation concludes: van Parijs committed research misconduct; four(4) published papers require correction.
• 23 January 2009: Office of Research Integrity's findings of scientific misconduct at Harvard/BWH, Caltech, & MIT as well as van Parijs' Voluntary Exclusion Agreement published in the Federal Register: Vol. 74, No. 14, Notices, Pp. 4201-2

Literature corrections

(Original paper, correction; Chronological by literature correction - w/in institution of origin.)

Harvard papers

• van Parijs L, Perez VL, Biuckians A, Maki RG, London CA, and Abbas AK (1997) Role of interleukin 12 and costimulators in T cell anergy in vivo. Journal of Experimental Medicine 186(7): 1119-28 (6 October). PMID 9314560; Open access.
  • Retraction: "Role of interleukin 12..." by van Parijs, L et al. Journal of Experimental Medicine published online 13 April 2009. Retraction by journal editors. Open access.
• van Parijs L, Peterson DA, and Abbas AK (1998) The Fas/Fas Ligand Pathway and Bcl-2 Regulate T Cell Responses to Model Self and Foreign Antigens. Immunity 8(2): 265-274 (1 February). PMID 9492007
  • van Parijs L, Peterson DA, and Abbas AK (2009) Retraction: The Fas/Fas Ligand Pathway and Bcl-2 Regulate T Cell Responses to Model Self and Foreign Antigens. Immunity 30(4): 611 (17 April).

Caltech papers

• van Parijs L, Refaell Y, Lord JD, Nelson BH, Abbas AK, and Baltimore D (1999) Uncoupling IL-2 Signals that Regulate T Cell Proliferation, Survival, and Fas-Mediated Activation-Induced Cell Death. Immunity 11(3): 281-288 (1 September). PMID 10514006
  • van Parijs L, Refaell Y, Lord JD, Nelson BH, Abbas AK, and Baltimore D (2009) Retraction: Uncoupling IL-2 Signals that Regulate T Cell Proliferation, Survival, and Fas-Mediated Activation-Induced Cell Death. Immunity 30(4): 611 (17 April).
• van Parijs L, Refaell Y, Abbas AK, and Baltimore D (1999) Autoimmunity as a Consequence of Retrovirus-Mediated Expression of C-FLIP in Lymphocytes. Immunity 11(6): 763-770 (1 December). PMID 10626898
  • van Parijs L, Refaell Y, Abbas AK, and Baltimore D (2009) Retraction: Autoimmunity as a Consequence of Retrovirus-Mediated Expression of C-FLIP in Lymphocytes. Immunity 30(4): 612 (17 April).

MIT papers

(Each correction retracts data.)

• Nencioni A, Sandy P, Dillon C, Kissler S, Blume-Jensen P, and van Parijs L (2004) RNA interference for the identification of disease-associated genes. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics 6(2): 136-40 (April). PMID 15195924
  • (2005) Erratum: [Nencioni A, Sandy P, Dillon C, Kissler S, Blume-Jensen P, and van Parijs L (2004) RNA interference for the identification of disease-associated genes. [Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics 6(2): 136-40]] Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics 7(3): 282 (June). Pdf available here.
• Rubinson DA, Dillon CP, Kwiatkowski AV, Sievers C, Yang L, Kopinja J, Zhang M, McManus MT, Gertler FB, Scott ML, and van Parijs L (2003) A lentivirus-based system to functionally silence genes in primary mammalian cells, stem cells and transgenic mice by RNA interference. Nature Genetics 33(3): 401-6 (March). PMID 12590264; Figures & tables open access. Authors list subsequently changed twice by "corrigenda": June 2003 (34(2): 231) (Open access) & June 2007 (following ref.).
  • Rubinson DA, Dillon CP, Kwiatkowski AV, Sievers C, Yang L, Kopinja J, Zhang M, McManus MT, Gertler FB, Scott ML, and van Parijs L (2007) Corrigendum: A lentivirus-based system... Nature Genetics 39(6): 803 (June). Open access; Data in original paper actually removed from site.
• Kelly E, Won A, Refaeli Y, and van Parijs L (2002) IL-2 and related cytokines can promote T cell survival by activating AKT. J. Immunology 168(2): 597-603 (15 January). PMID 11777951; Open access.
  • Kelly E, Won A, Refaeli Y, and van Parijs L (2007) Erratum: IL-2 and related cytokines... J. Immunology 179(12): 8569 (15 December). "Retraction" of Figure 5B. Open access.

News media

(Chronological)

1. Robert L. Hotz, "Caltech President Who Raised School's Profile to Step Down" (Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2005, P. A1) [1]
2. MIT New Office, "MIT professor dismissed for research misconduct," 27 Oct. 2005
3. Boston Globe, "MIT professor is fired over fabricated data," 28 Oct. 2005 [2]
4. Reich, Eugenie Samuel (2005) MIT professor sacked for fabricating data. NewScientist.com (28 Oct.) [3]
5. New York Times, "M.I.T. Dismisses a Researcher, Saying He Fabricated Some Data," 28 Oct. 2005 [4]
6. The Tech (MIT student paper), "MIT Fires Professor Van Parijs for Using Fake Data in Papers," 28 Oct. 2005 [5]
7. Boston Globe, "More doubts raised on fired MIT professor," 29 Oct. 2005 [6]
8. Harvard Crimson, "MIT Professor Fired for Faking Data," 31 Oct. 2005 [7]
9. The Tech, "Van Parijs’ Research at Caltech, Brigham Drawing New Scrutiny," 1 Nov. 2005 [8]
10. TheScientist.com, "Immunologists prepare for fraud fallout," 3 Nov. 2005 [9]
11. Dalton, R. (2005) Universities scramble to assess scope of falsified results. Nature 438(7064): 7 (3 Nov.) PMID 16267515
12. Couzin, J. (2005) MIT terminates researcher over data fabrication. Science 310(5749): 758 (4 Nov.) PMID 16272088
13. New Scientist, "One bad apple..." (unsigned editorial), 5 Nov. 2005 [10]
14. Chronicle of Higher Education, "MIT Fires Biology Professor Who Admitted Faking Data," 11 Nov. 2005 [11]
15. unsigned editorial (2006) Scientific blues. Nature Immunology 7(1): 1 (1 Jan.) PMID 16357846
16. Reich, E.S. (2006) Bad data fail to halt patents. Nature 439(7075): 379 (26 Jan.) PMID 16437075
17. Odling-Smee, L., Giles, J., Fuyuno, I., Cyranoski, D., & Marris, E. (2007) Misconduct Special: Where are they now? Nature 445(7125): 244-5 (18 Jan.) PMID 17230161 Open access.
18. Reich, E.S. (2007) Scientific misconduct report still under wraps. New Scientist ?(2631): 16 (24 Nov.) [12]
19. Reich, E.S. (2009) Former MIT biologist penalized for falsifying data. Nature.com (3 Feb.) [13] or here

External links

• MIT News Office: MIT professor dismissed for research misconduct
• PubMed search: "van parijs l" [AU]
• Google Scholar search: L Van Parijs
• MIT Center for Cancer Research
• Photo of Van Parijs