20 1 1 The co-option of China Academy of Engineering entered the second round of evaluation. Cao Yilin, a professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University and the "number one figure" in the field of tissue engineering in China, has just become an effective candidate, but has been questioned by "academic fraud".
The skeptics said that Cao Yilin's famous "human ear mouse" was a lie that lasted for more than ten years, so it won a lot of honor and financial support, but then it stagnated and let huge investment hit Shui Piao "a fake ear and cheated 300 million"
But Cao Yilin's disciple said, "Some people spread false news at this time just to muddy the water." Zhang said, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and Cao Yilin's tutor, "Personally, this exhibit is not fake, but a repetition of previous experimental results. Cao Yilin's successful experiment in the United States was recognized at home and abroad, which is beyond reproach. "
Regarding the query about the evaluation process of Cao Yilin's team winning the biggest honor "Second Prize of National Technological Invention Award", the competent department responded that it was "very difficult" to fabricate a project out of thin air.
Text/Figure Ethan, reporter of the newspaper in Shanghai
The first public appearance of "Human Ear Rat" in China was the achievement exhibition of the national "863" plan in 200 1 year15th anniversary. This mouse with lifelike "human ears" on its back has aroused people's infinite imagination of "organ factory".
Is the appearance of "human ear mouse" a show?
According to media reports at that time, "each exhibition only lasts for one or two hours. Although the tickets are as high as 20 yuan, there are still nearly 200,000 people who are willing to pay for a look at the human ear mouse. "
Shang Qingxin, a graduate student of Cao Yilin, said that he brought the "human ear mouse" from Shanghai to Beijing for exhibition. "Sensation to what extent? I took a taxi, and the driver said, this is the little mouse. I don't charge you. " Although the exhibition only lasted for more than a week, the concept of "tissue engineering" was vividly brought to people by "human ear mouse", and Cao Yilin thus established his authoritative position in the field of tissue engineering in China.
According to public reports at that time, "human ear" is actually cartilage cultured with bovine chondrocytes. First, make the design drawing, and then use a polymer chemical material-polyglycolic acid as the model bracket. Bovine chondrocytes were "planted" on the scaffold, and then the extracellular matrix needed to construct human ears was propagated and grown, and then implanted into mice. After the scaffold made of completely degradable materials disappeared, cartilage tissue grew with mouse skin and became a "human ear" with similar appearance to the real ear.
But Shang Qingxin said, "It's definitely not cartilage implanted in mice, it may just be a polymer scaffold."
He listed four doubts: first, as a "core figure", he knew nothing about the details of the appearance of "human ear mouse"; Secondly, Cao Yilin published relevant papers in 1997, but before returning to China for the exhibition, he did not copy the "human ear mouse"; Third, during the exhibition, Shang Qingxin used a syringe to extract the exudate every night, so that the skin of nude mice could fit the stent and present the shape of human ears, which exceeded expectations; Fourthly, when he returned the "human ear mouse", he conveyed the opinions of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission to Cao Yilin, and took out the materials, which proved to be true ear cartilage and kept it as an experimental result for a long time, but soon the "human ear mouse" died strangely and the "human ear" could not be found.
What makes Shang Qingxin more certain is that Cao Yilin once said that the preparations for the exhibition were "too tight" and could not be cultivated, while the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission said that "it is necessary to make an exhibition first". "Doesn't that mean that he himself admits that the human ear mouse is fake?"
According to the "sample theory", Ding Xiaobang, a student of Cao Yilin, a participant in the "human ear mouse" scientific research project and director of the International Trade Clinic of the Plastic Surgery Hospital of China Academy of Medical Sciences, believes that Cao Yilin was "framed". "In fact, this kind of cell regeneration requires certain experimental conditions and time, and it usually takes 6 to 8 weeks to form. The model at that time was only used for scientific display. "
Ding Xiaobang said that this model combines chondrocytes with biodegradable biomaterials to regenerate cartilage tissue that looks like a human ear, "of course it is not a real human ear".
He also said that although the scaffold was completely degradable at that time, "it would take eight weeks to degrade anyway", and the time was tight and the cells on the scaffold were not active, so it was hastily implanted into the back of nude mice. Because chondrocytes can't wrap the material scaffold, it causes serious reaction in mice.
In response to Shang Qingxin's query, Ding Xiaobang said that aspiration of exudate is a necessary step in plastic surgery. In reality, people's costal cartilage is used to carve the outline of the ear, and then buried under the skin for ear plastic surgery. "A negative pressure aspirator must be used to ensure that the skin adheres to the costal cartilage in order to grow into an ear shape. This is the most basic technology in clinic. "
"It's nonsense to say that nude mice were secretly executed. Naked mice themselves have no immunity, and they only lived for more than 4 weeks from modeling to infection and death. " He believes that previous reports may misunderstand "model" as "sample". "Teacher Cao's paper published in the most famous plastic surgery magazine Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery uses the word model, which is the model."
Ding Xiaobang believes that "some people spread this information during Mr. Cao's election as an academician, and I am afraid it is deliberately muddling the water."
Can high input lead to high output?
But both sides believe that technically, it is not difficult to be a "human ear mouse".
Ding Xiaobang said that Cao Yilin's research team will show the newly cultivated "human ear mouse" to set the record straight.
"It's time to come up with newer and more advanced research results." Shang Qingxin believes that it is of little significance to simply discuss the authenticity of "human ear mouse". The important thing is that "Cao Yilin won a series of honors by relying on human ears and mice, and also received a lot of scientific research expenses, but the expenses have been invested for so many years, but nothing has been achieved."
An insider who did not want to be named said that Cao Yilin had successively won two national "973" projects, four "Tenth Five-Year Plan" and four "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and "863" major projects. It is conservatively estimated that only his team invested 60 million yuan in scientific research. "Other investments include: about 30-40 million yuan for large-scale scientific research projects in Shanghai,180,000 yuan for the establishment of Shanghai tissue engineering research center and1200 million yuan for the establishment of national tissue engineering research center, which adds up to about 300 million yuan."
At the same time, he raised great doubts that Cao Yilin's team won the second prize of the National Technological Invention Award in 2008 with the project of "R&D and Application of Key Technologies in Organizational Engineering Construction". "This award is the pinnacle of his research achievements for many years, but all patents have no clinical application, let alone output value."
It is understood that the National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Engineering, located in Zizhu Science and Technology Park, Minhang District, Shanghai, abandoned the traditional form of scientific research institutes at the beginning of its establishment in 2005, with the shareholding system as its organizational structure and Cao Yilin as its director. As the undertaker, the head of Shanghai Guo Rui Life Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is Cao Yilin.
"In fact, when the tissue engineering research center was upgraded from Shanghai to China, it undertook the dual tasks of research and development and industrialization." The above-mentioned insiders said that in reality, the center and company of "one team, two brands" have fallen into a strange circle.
On the one hand, Guo Rui Life Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has no output value and no money on its books, because no products can enter the market. The National Engineering Research Center of Tissue Engineering has formulated four research directions: the research and development of hyaluronic acid, the research and development of ear cartilage of higher mammals with immune function such as dogs and pigs, the research and development of spinning materials, and the project of tissue engineering skin. However, only two projects have products that are applying to enter the market. "I started applying in 2007 and 2008, but at present, it will take at least two years to complete the approval process."
He said that the "artificial skin" of the tissue engineering research and development center of the Fourth Military Medical University officially entered the clinic as early as 2007; Zhejiang University also has the project of "Tissue Engineering Cartilage Research and Clinical Transformation". But "these leading scientists don't have as much research funding as Cao Yilin."
After 10 day's audit and evidence collection, Professor Cao Yilin, as the chief scientist of the national "973" project or the first person in charge of scientific research projects, undertook 7 national scientific research projects, involving a total project fund of 64,092,300 yuan, and all the projects were completed and passed the acceptance. Judging from the feedback from the audit and evidence collection investigation, all seven topics have their clear research tasks and objectives, the accounts are "original" and the funds are used in strict accordance with the project plan. Scientific research projects achieve the expected results of the task book and break the rumors of huge funds.
"Science is a process"
In this regard, Ding Xiaobang said, it cannot be said that there has been no progress in these years. "I used to think that the ideal state was to raise the chondrocytes on the scaffold first and then implant them under the skin. More ideally, after the material is degraded, the cells survive, attach to the skin, and grow new ears in appearance. However, Teacher Cao told me that this is very difficult. One is that the skin is propped up by a bracket, which is totally not adhesive cell. These cells have no nutrition. The only way to make cells grow well is to vacuum and ensure that there is no air between cells and skin. Let the skin stick to the cells before the cells can grow. "
Another problem is that the research team found that the strength of pure cartilage tissue is not enough. After being implanted under the skin for a period of time, it will lose its original fine outline and become a "round cake". "Teacher Cao originally asked for the use of completely degradable materials. But now I think that only degradable materials are not feasible, and there must be non-degradable materials as the core of support. "
In view of the authenticity of human ear mouse, Professor Cao Yilin's research team began to construct auricle scaffold materials and began to repeat verification experiments. On June 24th and 25th, the cells were seeded on the scaffold material. After a week of in vitro culture, the auricle scaffold inoculated with cells was implanted in nude mice within 4 days. Six weeks later, in mid-August, "human ear cartilage" was successfully constructed on the backs of eight nude mice, with good shape, and the whole experiment was recorded. Shanghai Jiaotong University organized an academic review committee composed of 4 academicians and 8 experts in related fields in China to review the academic research results of national tissue engineering led by Professor Cao Yilin.
Ding Xiaobang said that there have been new breakthroughs: first, this kind of tissue engineering cartilage has already possessed considerable mechanical properties; Secondly, by integrating computer technology into the shape control of degradable scaffold materials, medical staff can prepare digital scaffolds according to the shape of patients' healthy auricles and cultivate auricle cartilage with the same shape and size.
"Science is originally a process, a process of constantly discovering problems and constantly solving problems." He said.
Regarding Cao Yilin's query, Zhang, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and one of the founders of reconstruction surgery in China, said: "Cao Yilin is still one of the academic leaders in tissue engineering research in China. In fact, in the current scientific research field, it is not uncommon to have multiple tasks and lack of concentration. As for the waste of scientific research funds, it is also a common problem, so we should advocate saving and establish a strict audit and management system as soon as possible. "
How did Cao Yilin's team win the prize?
For the project that Cao Yilin's team won the second prize of the National Technological Invention Award in 2008, people familiar with the matter questioned that during the application process, many achievements listed in the recommendation were not accompanied by "original materials", but they also passed the layer-by-layer evaluation. So, is it possible to exploit loopholes in the evaluation system?
You don't have to have enough raw materials.
The relevant staff of the National Science and Technology Awards Office told the reporter that not all the most original and first-hand materials in the application materials need to be submitted. "If the material thickness is not required, it is likely that some application materials are several feet thick, and experts don't have time to read them all."
"But these most original and first-hand materials must be available to the awarding unit, and we must take them out when we go to inspect." The staff told reporters that generally speaking, about 40 national technological invention awards are declared every year, and those who declare the second prize need to take the stage to reply, and each project will be reviewed, and then spot checks will be conducted after reviewing the problems.
Only 1000 projects can be randomly selected every year.
The staff also said that the spot check method was adopted because there are more than 1000 items in various awards every year, and it is impossible for everyone to check them. Generally speaking, according to the actual situation in the evaluation in that year, the problems with high award-winning grades, problems considered by experts in the evaluation, sensitive areas, related to current major events, or objections are investigated.
However, he also pointed out that the evaluation procedures of various awards are very complicated. "Even after the assessment, someone reported that a declared project had major problems, we still have to conduct another investigation."
"In fact, there are many barriers in the whole evaluation process. It is unlikely that there is no original material. It is very difficult to fabricate a project out of thin air. " The staff member said. Cao Yilin is known to outsiders as a "human ear mouse". Like the cloned sheep, this mouse with "human ears" once shocked the international academic community. 1996 was published, mainly by Cao Yilin, who is engaged in postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, in Vacanti Laboratory. After returning to China, Cao Yilin worked in Shanghai Second Medical University (later merged into Shanghai Jiaotong University) and was promoted as the leader of tissue engineering in China.
According to two articles published in Outlook Oriental Weekly, Cao Yilin appeared in court together with his current research partners, accusing Chen Qi of academic misconduct and defrauding the state of 300 million research funds.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper yesterday, Cao Yilin denied that "a false ear cheated the country of 300 million yuan".
Cao Yilin said that in order to prove his innocence, he made eight "human ear rats". He also said, "I am engaged in science, and science is more important to me. What academician is not important at all. "
The reporter learned from Shanghai Jiaotong University yesterday that the relevant state departments have been involved in the investigation and will hold a press conference on "human ears and mice" in the near future. In the face of doubts, Cao Yilin appeared at the press conference with four "human ear rats" that started in June. According to the investigation results of the working group jointly established by Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and the Ninth People's Hospital, the scientific research results of "human ear cartilage" regeneration on the back of nude mice are true and internationally recognized.
The expert group listened to Cao Yilin's relevant report, and conducted on-site investigation and academic evaluation. The living "human ear mouse" was displayed on the spot and sampled on the spot for verification. The regenerated tissue was confirmed as human cartilage tissue by field frozen section and pathological identification, and also transferred to a third party for histopathological identification. The pathological report further confirmed that it was cartilage tissue. Regarding the question of defrauding "300 million scientific research funds", Shanghai Ninth Hospital responded that the Health and Drug Audit Bureau of the National Audit Office received a real name report and sent people to Shanghai Ninth Hospital to investigate and audit Cao Yilin's scientific research project application and fund use.