Stanford University president to resign following research controversy

The president of Stanford University said Wednesday he would resign, citing an independent review that cleared him of research misconduct but found flaws in other papers authored by his lab.

Marc Tessier-Lavigne said in a statement to students and staff that he would step down Aug. 31.

The resignation comes after the board of trustees launched a review in December following allegations he engaged in fraud and other unethical conduct related to his research and papers.

The review assessed 12 papers that Tessier-Lavigne worked on, and he is the principal author of five of them. He said he was aware of issues with four of the five papers but acknowledged taking "insufficient" steps to deal with the issues. He said he'll retract three of the papers and correct two.

Tessier-Lavigne said in his statement that he "never submitted a scientific paper without firmly believing that the data were correct and accurately presented," but added that he should have been more diligent in seeking corrections regarding his work.

In November, the college's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, published an investigative story that revealed a prominent research journal was reviewing a paper that Tessier-Lavigne had co-authored, and said that Tessier-Lavigne had been made aware of errors in his papers as early as 2015. 

The story also mentioned several other papers of Tessier-Lavigne's, including two that he co-authored, that an outside expert said contained "serious problems." At the time, the university downplayed Tessier-Lavigne's conduct and said that in two cases, he "was not involved in any way in the generation or presentation of the panels that have been queried." In the other two cases, the university said that the issues "do not affect the data, results or interpretation of the papers." 

The panel cleared him of the most serious allegation, that a 2009 paper published in the scientific journal Nature was the subject of a fraud investigation and that fraud was found. The paper proposed a model of neurodegeneration, which could have great potential for Alzheimer's disease research and therapy, the panel wrote in its report.

But the panel also concluded the paper had multiple problems, including a lack of rigor in its development and that the research that went into the paper and its presentation contained "various errors and shortcomings." The panel did not find evidence that Tessier-Lavigne was aware of the lack of rigor.

Tessier-Lavigne says he's stepping down because he expects continued debate about his ability to lead the university. He will remain on faculty as a biology professor. He also said he will continue his research into brain development and neurodegeneration.

He has been president for nearly seven years.

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