Head of Austrian med school canned

Written byBob Grant

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The rector of a prominent Austrian medical university has been fired in the midst of a linkurl:scientific misconduct investigation;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54932/ that has plagued the institution for months. The Medical University of Innsbruck's seven-person council unceremoniously dumped linkurl:Clemens Sorg,;http://www.i-med.ac.at/mypoint/news/2007111301.xml an immunologist and the rector of the university, from his position on August 21, according to a linkurl:report;http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080827/full/4541041a.html?s=news_rss in __Nature__. Last November, Sorg raised the alarm on university urologists who were testing a linkurl:stem cell therapy;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53610/ that used patients' own cells to treat urinary incontinence. Earlier this month, those researchers - who included linkurl:Hannes Strasser,;http://www.uro-innsbruck.at/inkontinenz/englisch/website_en/mitarbeiter.htm the study's lead author - were accused, in a report from Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety, of failing to randomize study participants adequately, designing the trial poorly, proceeding with the study despite a lack of appropriate ethical clearance, and inadequately informing study participants of the nature of the experiment. The study was published last year in linkurl:__The Lancet__.;http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607610149/abstract The university has barred Strasser, who has denied any wrongdoing, from seeing patients. Sorg, in a letter sent to colleagues in Austria and his native Germany and leaked to Austrian newspaper __Tiroler Tageszeitung__, wrote that high level Austrian officials were trying to squelch a "medical scandal of unprecedented scale". According to __Nature__, the university council contends that Sorg is guilty of a "serious breech of duties" because he criticized the handling of the misconduct and violated official secrecy. The ex-rector now plans to sue the institution.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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