Notebook - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences
Abstract
Self-starting science fraud investigators Walter Stewart and Ned Feder at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) appear to have received something like an apology from their supervisor, L. Earl Laurence. Laurence had written the two men a stern reprimand concerning an incident of alleged misuse of NIDDK letterhead. After a November appearance before the federal Commission on Research Integrity--previously approved by Laurence--Stewart and Feder in January sent Kenneth Ryan, commission chairman and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, a copy of an unofficial report on a congressional inquiry into alleged misconduct by HIV researcher Robert C. Gallo of the National Cancer Institute. In a February 15 memorandum, Laurence called the mailing a "flagrant violation" of his April 1993 directives to the pair to cease misconduct inquiries on government time, adding in one communication, "you are not to use Government stationery . . . to pursue such activities." Stewart and Feder countered that they had been invited by the commission to send "follow-up materials" to their testimony and considered the mailing part of their approved appearance. On April 5, Laurence sent another memo to the two: "I am