PIXABAY, DEBORABALVESSynthetic tissues from University College London that had not yet been approved for human use were sent abroad and implanted into humans, an investigation into the university’s regenerative medicine program has found.
The patients who received the transplants were used as “guinea pigs,” University of Edinburgh’s Stephen Wigmore, who led the investigation, tells The Guardian.
A 26-year-old patient in Tehran, Iran, received a synthetic graft to bypass the femoral artery, according to the report. A patient in Mumbai, India, was implanted with plastic discs beneath the skin to test their biocompatibility. These tissues were all most likely manufactured in the lab of Alexander Seifalian, The Guardian reports. Seifalian was fired from UCL in 2016 for reasons unrelated to his research.
According to New Scientist, the investigation initiated by UCL follows up on the institution’s relationship with Paolo Macchiarini, who was fired from the Karolinska Institute in 2016 after six of eight patients in whom he had implanted ...
