Seven years after investigations uncovered "serious noncompliance" in the collection of biological samples at a California VA hospital, the original whistleblowers say several papers related to the work use these problematic samples and should be retracted. But the principal investigator of the work says there’s no reason to question the findings.

The VA San Diego Health Care System was one of 12 institutions involved in the InTeam Consortium, a research initiative between 2013 and 2019 focused on alcohol-related liver inflammation. In 2016, two whistleblowers – Mario Chojkier and Martina Buck – alleged staff at the VA hadn’t obtained proper consent to perform biopsies on critically ill patients and use the samples for research related to the project.

The 2018 inquiry by the VA San Diego’s IRB found “serious noncompliance” in the research, which was on finding molecular targets for alcoholic hepatitis. Researchers collected fresh liver tissue for research instead of using archival samples, per the approved protocol. The IRB also found the informed consent documents did not disclose to patients additional liver tissue would be taken, or explain the risks associated with those procedures.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/03/05/seven-years-after-noncompliance-finding-whistleblowers-push-for-retractions/

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