Corinne Purtill | Los Angeles Times (TNS) LOS ANGELES — Late last year, a group of whistle-blowers submitted a report to the National Institutes of Health that questioned the integrity of a celebrated University of Southern California neuroscientist’s research and the safety of an experimental stroke treatment his company was developing. NIH has since paused clinical trials for 3K3A-APC, a stroke drug sponsored by ZZ Biotech, a Houston-based company co-founded by Berislav V. Zlokovic , professor and chair of the department of physiology and neuroscience at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Three of Zlokovic’s research papers have been retracted by the journal that published them because of problems with their data or images. Journals have issued corrections for seven more papers in which Zlokovic is the only common author, with one receiving a second correction after the new supplied data were found to have problems as well. For an 11th paper co-authored by Zlokovic the journal Nature Medicine issued an expression of concern , a note journals append to articles when they have reason to believe there may be a problem with the paper but have not conclusively proven so.
Since Zlokovic and his co-authors no longer had the original data for one of the questioned figures, the editors wrote, “(r)eaders are therefore alerted to interpret these results with caution.” “It’s quite unusual to see this volume of retractions, corrections and expressions of concern, especial.
