Transcript Why RCR? - Howard University, Graduate School

Why RCR?
Responsible Conduct of Research Workshop
Howard University
February 8, 2011
1
What is RCR?
o Guidelines and Regulations
o Plagiarism
o Institutional Review Board (IRB) / Human and Animal
Subjects
o Ethical Reasoning / Conflict of Interest
o Data Management
o Authorship and Publication Practices / Collaborative
Research
o Mentorship
o Informed Consent
o Intellectual Property
2
Why is RCR Important?
•
•
•
•
Federal Regulations
University Policies
Best Practices
Legal and Ethical Consequences of
Noncompliance
– University
– Business
– Individual
– Society
3
What’s the right thing to do?
• Examples to consider:
– Michael Sandel, Justice
– Henrietta Lacks and “Immortal Cells”
– “Quick and Dirty” Thesis/Dissertation
– “Perfect” Thesis/Dissertation
4
Michael Sandel, Justice
http://www.youtube.com/embed/kBdfcR-8hEY
5
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
• February 1, 1951, Baltimore resident
Henrietta Lacks diagnosed with cervical
cancer at Johns Hopkins University
Hospital
• February 9, 1951, radium treatment
begun; another tissue sample taken and
given to Dr. George Gey, head of tissue
culture research at JHUH
• Within days, Henrietta Lacks’s cancer
cells had multiplied “like nothing anyone
had
seen”.
6
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
• They were “immortal” and Dr. Gey
shared them with research colleagues
around world--and beyond
• October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks died
at JHU Hospital; she was 31 years old
• October 4, 1951, Dr. George Gey
appeared on national television and
discussed the possibility that with
“HeLa” cells research could find a cure
for cancer
7
HeLa Cells
8
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
• 1975, Henrietta’s daughter-in-law
learned from someone in a Washington,
DC laboratory that the cells were still
alive
• HeLa cells had become standard
reference cells
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
• Used in research that led to Salk
polio vaccine in 1950s
• Cancer research
• Study of HIV-AIDS
• The effects of radiation and toxic
substances
• Gene mapping
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
Moral and Ethical Issues
• Informed Consent
Not uncommon at the time that researchers
did not inform subjects or patients about the
nature of their investigations, or (like in the
Tuskegee experiment), of their potential
consequences.
Guidelines and regulations have been
established to assure informed consent.
11
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
Moral and Ethical Issues
• Compensation
What is morally or legally due to a
person if something of commercial
value is developed from their cells?
Unresolved issue being debated now by
medical ethicists.
12
Henrietta Lacks
13
Henrietta Lacks and
“Immortal Cells”
Does it matter that Henrietta Lacks was
an African American woman of modest
means, many of whose family members
today lack health insurance?
Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks, Random House (2010)
http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/01.html
“Quick and Dirty” Dissertation
Plagiarism is a real problem with real
consequences—at Howard University and
elsewhere
• An outstanding Howard student submitted
their application for oral defense to the
Graduate School
• Subsequently student’s department asked
that the defense be postponed pending an
investigation of plagiarism
15
“Quick and Dirty” Dissertation
• Confronted with the facts the student
confessed and expressed regret
• The student’s advisor, committee, and
departmental graduate faculty requested that
he be dismissed from the Graduate School
• The student was dismissed from the
Graduate School and notified that he cannot
return to graduate study at Howard University
16
“Perfect Dissertation”
• Student at another university received
PhD degree and published their research
results
• Other researchers could not replicate the
findings
• Finally it was determined that the student
had falsified results in order to make their
findings more dramatic
• PhD degree was withdrawn
Why is RCR Important?
• Legal and Ethical Consequences of
Noncompliance
– University
– Business
– Individual
– Society
18
Thank you!
Charles L. Betsey, Ph.D.
Interim Dean
Howard University
Graduate School
[email protected]