Ex-employee invents animal experiments Falsified results put Zurich star researcher under pressure

Scientists in need of an explanation: an ex-employee of neuropathologist Adriano Aguzzi is alleged to have falsified research results. The University of Zurich is investigating the case, but the fraud is being played down.

He is one of the most important scientists in Switzerland: but apparently research results were falsified at Adriano Aguzzi's institute. Now the neuropathologist from the University Hospital Zurich is in need of an explanation because, according to some of his colleagues, he is doing too little to create transparency.

At the center of the scientific scandal is a former employee of Aguzzi's at the Institute of Neuropathology at the University Hospital Zurich, who worked there until two years ago. The researcher is alleged to have incorporated laboratory experiments on mice that were never carried out into scientific papers, as first reported by Sonntagsblick.

Specifically, the researcher is said to have reused microscope images of mice brains from earlier studies in order to fake the desired research results. The alleged findings were published in international journals.

Inconsistencies in own work too

The former employee is said to have admitted his manipulations in the meantime, as the newspaper reported. Aguzzi, head of the Institute of Neuropathology at Zurich University Hospital and full professor of neuropathology at the University of Zurich's Faculty of Medicine, has therefore had to correct or retract several publications in recent months. Sonntagsblick" quotes an insider who speaks of "half a dozen papers".

Inconsistencies had also emerged in earlier papers published by Aguzzi around 2010, which had nothing to do with the falsified animal experiments. Aguzzi has not yet commented publicly.

In general, the communication in the scientific scandal seems questionable. Aguzzi did inform the staff at his institute after the allegations became known in February 2024. However, neither Aguzzi nor the university management felt compelled to inform the public.

Aguzzi and the University of Zurich prefer to remain silent

According to Sonntagsblick, the extent of the errors is also being played down. Sometimes there is talk of "irregularities, sometimes of "inadvertent processing errors", sometimes of "falsely duplicated images". Not a word about fraud or forgery.

At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, the University of Zurich merely stated that an investigation was underway. Which publications are affected is also the subject of this investigation.

The journals would decide on any corrections to publications in consultation with the authors, it added. The university could not provide any further information due to the ongoing investigation. The university is committed to good scientific practice, takes allegations seriously as a matter of principle and investigates them.

Multiple award-winning scientist

Aguzzi has received numerous awards for his work in the past. In 2017, Queen Mathilde of Belgium presented him with the Baillet Latour Health Prize, endowed with 250,000 euros (currently around 236,000 Swiss francs), for his "pioneering studies on the causes of neurological diseases caused by prions".

Prions are defective protein particles that can damage the brain. They are highly likely to be responsible for diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans or BSE ("mad cow disease") in cattle.

With agency material.