Genentech review of Tessier-Lavigne paper finds no evidence of fraud — but hints at a different misconduct case

South San Francisco biotech Genentech on Thursday announced that an internal review of misconduct allegations concerning a landmark 2009 paper co-authored by Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a former top executive at the company and Stanford University’s current president, did not find any evidence of fraud or intentional wrongdoing. But the review also points to another previously undisclosed case of scientific misconduct by a post-doctoral researcher in Tessier-Lavigne’s lab.

The investigation’s findings, detailed in a five-page document released by the company, note that none of more than 35 current or former employees interviewed reported observing or knowing of fraud related to the 2009 study in the journal Nature, whose lead author was a postdoc working for Tessier-Lavigne.

“I am not surprised by Genentech’s review, which directly and unequivocally refutes the false and hearsay rumors concerning the 2009 Nature paper and related research,” Tessier-Lavigne wrote in an email to STAT.

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