Episode 2325: Charles Piller on Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's

More than 6 million Americans now suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease. So the stakes in find a cure for this neurological illness are huge. Too large, in fact, for some fraudulent American medical researchers. As the investigative science reporter Charles Piller reveals in DOCTORED, there has been considerable fraud, some of it outright criminal, in Alzheimer’s research in the United States. Piller’s key finding, discovered through brave whistleblowers like Vanderbilt’s Dr. Matthew Schrag, is that researchers often doctored images in their studies, either for career advancement or financial gain. Piller emphasizes that while most scientists are honest, institutional oversight has been inadequate in preventing and addressing research misconduct. So I guess Americans should be thankful that the incoming administration has nominated a man of unambiguous moral standing to be the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. I wish.

Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Piller:

* The Alzheimer's research field has been compromised by instances of scientific misconduct, particularly through the manipulation of research images. While some cases involve financial fraud (like the Cassava Sciences case), most stem from academic pressure to "publish or perish," leading researchers to "beautify" or outright falsify their data.

* Major scientific institutions (NIH, FDA, universities, and scholarly journals) have failed to properly oversee and investigate potential research misconduct, particularly in image manipulation. Piller argues these institutions need to reform their oversight practices to maintain credibility and advance legitimate research.

* The dominance of the "amyloid hypothesis" in Alzheimer's research has led to a concentration of funding and attention on one approach, potentially starving other promising research directions. However, new approaches are emerging, including studies of GLP-1 inhibitors (similar to weight loss drugs) and investigations into the role of latent viral infections like herpes.

* The whistleblower in this case, Dr. Matthew Schrag from Vanderbilt University, took significant professional risks as an untenured professor to expose these issues, demonstrating the challenges faced by those who attempt to address scientific misconduct.

* While there's no immediate cure for Alzheimer's, Piller remains optimistic about better treatments emerging in the next 10-20 years. He also emphasizes that lifestyle factors like exercise, diet, and blood pressure management can help forestall some of the worst effects of dementia, though they're not a cure.

Charles Piller is an investigative journalist for Science magazine and his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Sacramento Bee, and more. Piller has been honored with many national journalism awards, and is the author of Gene Wars, The Fail-Safe Society, and Doctored. He has reported on public health, biological warfare, infectious disease outbreaks, and other topics from the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America. Follow him on X @CPiller.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

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