After a months-long, independent review found Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne presided over flawed research and failed to correct problems that arose in the scientific record because of it, he announced Wednesday that he will resign from his post.
The review, which was announced in December, followed allegations reported in Stanford’s student newspaper that scientific work co-authored by Tessier-Lavigne contained altered images. The panel concluded that Tessier-Lavigne “did not engage in any fraud or falsification of scientific data” in a dozen papers it reviewed, nor did it find he had “knowledge of or was reckless regarding research misconduct in my lab,” he said in a letter Wednesday to the Stanford community.
“Although the report clearly refutes the allegations of fraud and misconduct that were made against me, for the good of the University, I have made the decision to step down as President effective August 31,” Tessier-Lavigne wrote.
Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur widely known for his Alzheimer’s research, has consistently denied the allegations against him.
However, the report did identify several issues, including “instances of manipulation of research data by others” in his lab, which the panel found Tessier-Lavigne did not take sufficient steps to correct. “Although I was unaware of these issues, I want to be clear that I take responsibility for the work of my lab members,” he wrote.
“I expect there may be ongoing discussion about the report and its conclusions, at least in the near term, which could lead to debate about my ability to lead the University into the new academic year,” Tessier-Lavigne wrote.
Stanford’s board of trustees appointed Richard Saller, a professor of European studies and former dean of the university’s School of Humanities and Sciences, to serve as interim president beginning Sept. 1. Tessier-Lavigne will stay on as a faculty member, he said, and will continue research into brain development and neurodegeneration.
The report was submitted Monday by former federal Judge Mark Filip and his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, and was released publicly Wednesday by the Stanford trustees. Through the course of its investigation, the panel met with interview subjects more than 50 times, including at least seven times with Tessier-Lavigne, and reviewed more than 50,000 documents and digital copies of Tessier-Lavigne’s records.
The review’s focus centered on 12 papers that Tessier-Lavigne co-authored, his steps toward correcting issues or errors in the scientific record and how he managed and oversaw his labs.
In the five reviewed papers on which Tessier-Lavigne was the principal author, the panel found he was unaware of his lab’s manipulated data and did not act recklessly in failing to identify the issues.
“Nonetheless, based on the available research record and other factors, each of the papers has serious flaws in the presentation of research data; in at least four of the five papers, there was apparent manipulation of research data by others,” the report said.
One such paper, published in the scientific journal Nature in 2009, was seen as having great potential for Alzheimer’s disease research and therapeutics, according to the report. A Stanford Daily article published in February cited anonymous sources who said that Genentech, where Tessier-Lavigne was an executive at the time, found falsified data in the paper and that Tessier-Lavigne had covered it up. Although those allegations of fraud appeared unfounded, according to both Genentech and the new independent review, the panel discovered multiple issues, including low-quality scientific processes, and errors and shortcomings in the paper’s research and presentation of results.
The investigation did not find that Tessier-Lavigne was aware of the paper’s “lack of rigor,” the report said.
At least three of the papers will be retracted, and extensive corrections will be issued for the other two.
At various points in Tessier-Lavigne’s career, when concerns emerged around papers he had worked on, the panel found that he “failed to decisively and forthrightly correct mistakes in the scientific record.”
Though the investigation noted “many positive attributes” in the culture of Tessier-Lavigne’s labs, it also said the “unusual frequency” of data manipulation and below-average practices under his leadership suggested “there may have been opportunities to improve laboratory oversight and management.”
Tessier-Lavigne has authored or co-authored about 300 scientific papers. Claims of anomalous images in a few of them have appeared for years on PubPeer, a website that enables anonymous contributors to examine scientific papers and highlight potential flaws.
Under scrutiny were several studies, some two decades old, co-authored by Tessier-Lavigne that were published in journals including Science, Nature and the European Molecular Biology Organization Journal.
The university launched a probe after a story in the Stanford Daily in which Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist who works as an independent science-integrity consultant, said there were “serious problems” in some studies that list Tessier-Lavigne as a co-author.
Before he became Stanford’s president in 2016, Tessier-Lavigne served as president of Rockefeller University in New York, oversaw the development of cancer drugs as chief scientific officer at Genentech, and co-founded the biotech company Renovis.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
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