Bullying in academia is great fun. Driving your lab members like slaves and treating them like replaceable objects is what successfully led our scientists to cure cancer, brain diseases and diabetes, abolish old age or grow organs in the lab. Not really, they just published irreproducible or even fraudulent papers on those topics. Yet until very recently, bullying by principal investigators (PIs) was seen as the quality signature of strong leadership, scientific dedication and virile dominance. Maybe this is why women sometimes get in trouble for bullying, where men mostly get rewarded. In fact, like David Argyle of University of Edinburgh was. The bullying victims who complain are still seen as pathetic losers who have no place in science.
But times are changing. Universities and research institutions worry these days about victims of bullying and harassment suing them for damages, and when it gets critical, the bully PI is made to resign “voluntarily” and quietly passed on to the next employer.
What the scientific authorities have not realised yet, is the connection between bullying and bad science. Humiliating your lab members, denying them scientific credit, vacation and other free time, even maternity leave, threatening them with a failed graduation, negative recommendation letters, loss of job or even of the immigration visa, guarantees to deliver only one thing: research misconduct. You will get those scientific results you wanted eventually, but they will be fake. Once the paper with falsified data is published, it is unlikely the bullying PI will voluntarily retract it: that would be admitting their own failure, absolutely not an option for a bully.
On my site alone there are several examples for bullying and bad science. There are cases where the PI is simultaneously a cheater and a bully, like Abderrahmane Kaidi who was sacked for both bullying and fraud before he obtained a professorship tenure, his top-journal papers were retracted. And of course also the former cancer researcher Jasti Rao is such a case, surreally excessive in both fraud and bullying department. Umut Ozcan was accused of both bullying and fraud, but the Harvard Medical School acquitted him in full. But in general, it is more complicated. The big American labs of the 1980ies were a bully’s paradise, maybe this is how the culture of the tough driving PI was established all over the world.
From those golden 1980ies, the US virologist Robert Gallo was known to be a manipulative lying bully, and he is now famous for literally stealing the HIV virus to claim credit and to enrich himself with a faulty AIDS blood test. Another American titan from the 1980ies is the cancer researcher Stuart Aaronson, whom lab members and even own children were afraid of, and Aaronson has several papers on PubPeer.
The next generation of bullying titans gives you the British cancer researcher Richard Marais, first embroiled in a research misconduct case in his own lab, then accused by past associates of excessive bullying in my site’s comment section. Pier Paolo Pandolfi was forced to resign by Harvard University over sexual harassment charges, and then lost his new job in Italy before he even started, because my site revealed not just the harassment charges, but also reminded of Pandolfi’s bad science on PubPeer.
And then of course, Didier Raoult in France is a known as a psychopathic tyrant and misogynous bully, and guess what kind of science his Marseille people have published. Now the world is still wasting enormous resources to debunk his chloroquine quackery in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
David Argyle and Trial by Media
Now, to a recent case in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh, which my readers might recall in regard to the Irina Stancheva fraud case.
Meet David Argyle, cancer researcher, veterinary medicine professor and since 2011 head of veterinary faculty at the University of Edinburgh, or as they say there, Dick Vet School. For the last 5 years, Argyle was accused of bullying by his staff and colleagues. We know it from The Times, as revealed on 4 October 2020:
“An investigation by the University and College Union (UCU) described “shocking levels of harassment” at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.
Sources claim that about 20 staff left amid conflicts with Professor David Argyle, dean of the vet school and head of the world-famous Roslin Institute since 2011. In June, he was elected as junior vice-president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.
The UCU’s findings were broadly supported by Intersol, an agency hired by the university to examine bullying claims. Both reviews concluded earlier this year and took evidence from dozens of staff who described being victimised, shouted at and threatened with their jobs.”
The bullying allegations started already in 2015, the UCU investigation, done by external agency Intersol Global, concluded:
“An intolerable breach of basic health and safety standards in aggressive and abusive language and physical behaviour, particularly from a particular [member of] staff that we shall not name in this communication; shocking levels of harassment leading to many staff taking leave due to stress; long-term members of staff leaving due to feeling marginalised, harassed and eventually bullied out of their jobs.”
23 staff members who suffered from Argyle’s leadership approach were interviewed. The Times reports:
“Just over a third (38%) told how long-term staff members left as a result of feeling marginalised and harassed, while the same proportion described how disciplinary procedures were used “against those labelled troublemakers, or those who question inappropriate behaviour of management”.
The Intersol-UCU report was submitted to the University of Edinburgh in March/April 2020. On 15 October 2020, BMJ brought the detailed list of allegations recorded by Intersol, the article was published on behalf of the British Veterinary Association. Quote:
- An ‘intolerable breach of basic health and safety standards’ in terms of aggressive and abusive language and physical behaviour by the head of school (among others).
- ‘Shocking levels of harassment’, leading to many staff taking sick leave due to stress.
- Long-term members of staff leaving due to feeling marginalised, harassed and eventually bullied out of their jobs.
- Unacceptably high workloads.
- Negligible faith in the impartiality of human resources when dealing with staff complaints.
- Negligible faith in the impartiality of recruitment and promotion processes.
- A culture of extreme fear of being labelled as a troublemaker.
- Use of disciplinary procedures, marginalisation and unprofessional conduct against those who question inappropriate behaviour of management.
Argyle was also accused of “cronyism” and deploying “aggressive and abusive language as well as physical behaviour” as part of his bullying. Also in October, a petition was set up by Kathy Sparkle, “calling for the RCVS to require that David Argyle steps down from his role as JVP of the RCVS, on the basis that allegations of this scale are wholly incompatible with a position of leadership within the profession.” Almost 300 people signed, some shared comments about having witnessed Argyle’s bullying themselves.
Yet the University of Edinburgh, who previously rejected all staff complaints submitted between 2015 and 2020, reassured The Times readers that their internal review had “fully and robustly investigated these claims of bullying and found no evidence of misconduct“. The review report remains secret. Instead, the university asserted there was no need at all to interview staff for bullying allegations, proposed some voluntary anti-bullying and harassment training, and offered staff members to meet Argyle in person so he can explain his leadership vision to them. You know what else the university did? Tried to coerce staff (including “clinicians, receptionists and even yard workers in the equine unit“) to support Argyle, as The Times Reported in November 2020:
“whistleblower stated that a senior staff member, Richard Mellanby, had “summoned colleagues and, most notably, staff under his direct management in his office for short face-to-face, one-to-one meetings to ‘ask’ them to be included in a letter in support of Argyle”.
The University of Edinburgh explained that campaign was not mandatory, but an utterly voluntary invitation to alleviate the “distress among staff” caused by the evil lying media and that tiny minority of troublemakers.
On 23 October 2020, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons denounced a “trial by media“, proclaimed their Junior Vice President (JVP) Argyle an innocent victim of persecution and reaffirmed their intent to appoint him as RCVS President in 2021. RCVS referred to Edinburgh’s internal investigation, which they say was independent:
“the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies launched an independent investigation into the allegations, which concluded no evidence existed of misconduct. This conclusion was upheld after an appeal.”
Yet on 28 October, RCVS started to back-pedal and invited Argyle to make “a statement to Council at its next scheduled meeting on 5 November 2020“. And right on 5 November, the RCVS Council suddenly announced to be investigating the Argyle case, despite the previous Edinburgh investigation which found him innocent. The public was informed that
“Professor Argyle told Council that in light of the concern being raised against him with the RCVS, he had made the personal decision to step aside from his JVP and Council duties until the concern was investigated and concluded.
The Council did not request this course of action, but acknowledged that this was Professor Argyle’s personal choice, made for personal reasons.”
Since then, no news. But Cheshire (who alerted me to these developments) had a look at Argyle’s papers, and now we are back discussing how bullying might result in bad science. Something RCVS and University of Edinburgh might additionally consider before rallying in support of Argyle.
The papers are rather recent, so their raw data might be still around. Although that being veterinary school, expect Argyle’s explanation that a pig ate his data. A two-year-old paper, with a duplicated image:
Y Capodanno, F O Buishand, L Y Pang, J Kirpensteijn, J A Mol, D J Argyle Notch pathway inhibition targets chemoresistant insulinoma cancer stem cells Endocrine Related Cancer (2018) doi: 10.1530/erc-17-0415
Maybe this duplication was a mistake of oversight, but here is a similar mistake, from an earlier paper:
Breno C.B. Beirão, Teresa Raposo, Lisa Y. Pang, David J. Argyle Canine mammary cancer cells direct macrophages toward an intermediate activation state between M1/M2 BMC Veterinary Research (2015) doi: 10.1186/s12917-015-0473-y
Strange is that the second image in Figure 4B(i) was not just duplicated, but stretched for no particular reason. Another mistake? Also happened in 2013:
Manikhandan A. V. Mudaliar, Ross D. Haggart, Gino Miele, Grant Sellar, Karen A. L. Tan, John R. Goodlad, Elspeth Milne, David M. Vail, Ilene Kurzman, Daniel Crowther, David J. Argyle Comparative gene expression profiling identifies common molecular signatures of NF-κB activation in canine and human diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) PLoS ONE (2013) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072591
There is more that accidentally copied pictures of tissues or cell cultures. Someone was stitching empty lanes onto gels to prove something negative:
Lisa Y. Pang, Lauren Saunders, David J. Argyle Epidermal growth factor receptor activity is elevated in glioma cancer stem cells and is required to maintain chemotherapy and radiation resistance Oncotarget (2017) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.19868
To be fair, for Oncotarget it might be an editorial expectation to submit manipulated data, that journal must maintain its reputation after all. Maybe they reject all manuscripts which lack data manipulation? Who can blame the Argyle lab here?
The next case is a bit more complicated:
Mark Gray, Arran K. Turnbull, James Meehan, Carlos Martínez-Pérez, Charlene Kay, Lisa Y. Pang, David J. Argyle Comparative Analysis of the Development of Acquired Radioresistance in Canine and Human Mammary Cancer Cell Lines Frontiers in Veterinary Science (2020) doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00439
There is a splice edge indicated by an arrow. Unlike other ERK lanes, the shapes of the bands in this third row do not match between the total ERK and phospho-ERK signals. The other bands in this ERK panel seems to match, which they also should since the western blot figure purports to show the same gel. Seems the third phospho-ERK lane was digitally replaced by someone, hence the splice edge. Who and why does that, we can’t say but it is naughty. In this regard, there might also be issues with the AKT panel, surely Professor Argyle will find the raw data from this 2020 Frontiers paper? Or did a pig eat it already?
The last paper I wish to show was also flagged on PubPeer, but for what I see a non-issue. What is worrisome indeed, is that every single panel of this Figure 1G shows a physically different gel, judging from band shapes. Yet it purports to show one single gel probed with various antibody including b-actin loading control.
Lisa Y. Pang, Emma L. Gatenby, Ayako Kamida, Bruce A. Whitelaw, Ted R. Hupp, David J. Argyle Global gene expression analysis of canine osteosarcoma stem cells reveals a novel role for COX-2 in tumour initiation PLoS ONE (2014) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083144
Is this how science is done in the Argyle lab? Not very reassuring, maybe he should learn some research ethics next to his anti-bullying training, and be nicer to his people.
Update 18.01.2021
A reader sent me the VetRecord articles from October 2020, which are unfortunately paywalled. One is an editorial, another presents several whistleblower accounts. The first story is of a female scientist whom Argyle tried to sack after 10 years for no obvious reason. She writes:
“I see Argyle as the Donald Trump of the vet world – he thinks he can behave in any way he wants, even be found out, reported in the national press, and continue to be the head of school. He should be sacked and in my opinion, he is not fit to be the next RCVS president.”
The irony that Argyle, publisher of questionable data, who even managed to faithfully reproduce the fake results of non-existent heart stem cells by Piero Anversa, argued for the whistleblower’s dismissal like this:
“he said my research was more about quantity than quality and that it was
essentially worthless to the university.”
A senior veterinarian was quoted:
“One clinician who was an expert in a specialised field was called to Argyle’s office. He accused her of ‘defrauding’ the university. She worked part-time on clinics which meant, when she was not there, the hospital had to refer specialised work elsewhere and he didn’t like paying for that. He said she needed to perform all of this specialised work. She left his office very distressed and became ill. To this day she is still quite traumatised by the way he treated her.
A pattern of bullying behaviour was present all along, especially to female vets. Argyle treated one pregnant vet very badly, calling her into his office and accusing her of abusing her colleagues by not working over Christmas. She had fully negotiated her leave with her line manager but that didn’t matter. He told her she was ‘swinging the lead’. And when she told him she felt bullied by him, he forced her to withdraw that ‘serious allegation’ and she left his office crying.
He has screamed at staff in front of students. Another time he criticised a whole department for going feral – for not abiding by his will (they did not select an appointee of his choice for a position). Very high numbers of small animal hospital staff have been paid off and made to go and made to sign non-disclosure
agreements.“
Another senior academic confirmed the above and added:
“In all the time I worked there, I only spoke to Argyle twice. The first time was a brief corridor conversation about some courses I was planning to do. The second time, I was called into his office and began to shout at me. He told me: ‘I pay your salary. Shut up, shut up and listen to me’.“
A female researcher confirmed bullying and sexual discrimination and said:
“If you were in David’s gang you are looked after , you are well looked after , you’d
get promotion. If you were on his radar, he’d ‘push you off the bus’“.
That term was used by Argyle himself. The whistleblower declared to have “only survived by keeping out of the way. I’ve taken maternity leave“. One of the around 30 staff members who lodged a complaint against Argyle is quoted with:
“he says things like ‘heavy is the head who wears the crown’ in meetings. He decides that you are either on his ship or not and, if you are not, he’ll set out to destroy your career. […]
Argyle also makes a point of saying ‘veterinary is a small profession. I will find you; I will destroy you’.
After the previous head Elaine Watson left, Argyle used to put up a picture of her on a broom and referred to her explicitly as a witch – this would be in open, monthly school meetings.“
Yet another scientist is quoted:
“The vet school is rife with nepotism. Spouses get jobs and then get promoted very quickly. If you question it, you are slammed. Bullying is commonplace and people are so scared to say anything. […]
David Argyle says there are a couple of people with a grudge or vendetta against him. The man is deluded and unfortunately he is getting protected from above. Twenty-five to thirty people can’t all be wrong – and that’s not including colleagues who left a while ago. Sadly he is not the only bully in the vet school.“
The University of Edinburgh protected Argyle for seven years, successfully suppressed and dismissed all complaints, and helped the bully sack and destroy the troublemakers. The university probably would love to support Argyle again, because to their minds he probably is a genius who does excellent science, and the whistleblowers are rats to be drowned.
What changed now, is that the bullying affair became public because the whistleblowers, disappointed by their university, approached some journalists. Also too many employees have left, dozens of them, all traumatised by the bullying, and this never looks good on an employer. Now the University of Edinburgh is in a pickle. Serves them right.
Update 20.012021
Some might protest and say, Argyle can’t be a women-hating bully, look he published several papers about the real existence of Anversa’s fake heart stem cells with a female senior lecturer in veterinary pharmacology and therapeutics at the Dick Vet School in Edinburgh! A man who does support Women in STEM!
Thing is, Dr Sally Argyle is David Argyle’s wife, who was also in charge of undergraduate students at the Dick Vet School. And her institutional profile was recently deleted, but here is backup.
Update 16.03.2021
As VetTimes reported today, Argyle resigned from the RCVS council completely. It seems he did so to pre-empt the bullying investigation, which was now dropped:
“The preliminary investigation committee (PIC) of the RCVS had decided to close the case involving Prof Argyle, but he has announced his personal decision to resign from RCVS council with immediate effect. In doing so, he relinquishes his position as the council’s JVP. [..]
Prof Argyle, who had stepped aside from his council and JVP duties while the concern was investigated, said: “Despite this outcome from the PIC discussions, I have now made the challenging decision to stand down from my position at the RCVS. This is to ensure there is no further distraction to the college’s important work and activities, and that whoever becomes the next JVP has the full support of council and RCVS members. “It is also to reduce the toll this situation has taken on my family, colleagues and students, and on me personally.”
Update 20.12.2021
A follow-up to this article, with even more bullying, even more data fudgery and even more whitewashing, plus a cartoon, is available here!
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“Argyle was also accused of “cronyism” and deploying “aggressive and abusive language as well as physical behaviour” as part of his bullying.”
From from it! David Argyle does not resort to cronyism, or nepotism, and is a genius, able to find a way through when others failed!
When the rest of the world (except for Piero Anversa and followers) was unable to isolate and grow cardiac stem cells from adult humans or dogs for that matter, David Argyle and Sally A Argyle (in no way related), were able to isolate a grown adult dog cardiac stem cells in abundance.
See:https://pubpeer.com/publications/16D3D122C6F2B5A6784AD465745419
6 of the 35 references include those by Piero Anversa even though one of those references has been retracted. https://pubpeer.com/publications/C3B25A8F034B946DA15E92A191C721
Sally A Argyle and David Argyle wrote an clear-sighted, some may say naive, review
https://pubpeer.com/publications/9DA1D5E9B7D83938685A839153335E
on the same topic in which they quote Piero Anversa as the authority on isolating and growing adult cardiac stem cells from dogs
Linke, A., Muller, P., Nurzynska, D., Casarsa, C., Torella, D., Nascimbene, A., Castaldo,C., Cascapera, S., Bohm, M., Quaini, F., Urbanek, K., Leri, A., Hintze, T.H., Kajstura,J., Anversa, P., 2005. Stem cells in the dog heart are self-renewing, clonogenic,and multipotent and regenerate infarcted myocardium, improving cardiacfunction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 102, 8966–8971.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/9DA1D5E9B7D83938685A839153335E
I think we should recognize scientific quality when we see it.
People, and light-weight institutions such as Harvard, which maintain that there are no adult mammalian (non-existent in mice and man) cardiac stem cells are negative nincompoops.
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/adult-cardiac-stem-cells-dont-exist–study-64752
https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/14/harvard-brigham-retractions-stem-cell/
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no no no, we must rehabilitate Anversa now, look, he was right all along! Thank you professor Argyle!
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And a stable genius at that. With his career apparently on the ropes, time for him to pull a Wakefield and move him to my neck of the woods (USA). I have an idea, we can exchange Argyle for Annversa. Best deal with the UK since Lend-Lease of 1940!
I always get a kick out people seem to think that research at the bench level should be fun. It really should be, if it wasn’t for that fact that your main job is to satisfy the big ego of faculty wanting to make a great discovery to get mentioned in a text book and to get tenure so he/she can sit on his/her lazy ass with impunity….
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The Times on article David Argyle
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-vet-professor-david-argyle-at-centre-of-bullying-claims-at-edinburgh-university-5hlnmwjl8
and this report from Retraction Watch on Piero Anversa show very similar management styles.
https://retractionwatch.com/2014/05/30/braggadacio-information-control-and-fear-life-inside-a-brigham-stem-cell-lab-under-investigation/
Is it a surprise that the scientific outcomes are similar?
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Dear Leonid
How much must one do, until the hammer (guilloine etc.) comes down on them? This is outrageous it true, and therefore disqualifying for any job in academia.
Btw. excellent start to the new year.
Cheers, Oliver
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Looks like Dr. Argyle will respond on PubPeer: “A. Biskrensis, you are right in your comment. This went unnoticed, and we apologize. The correct picture is shown attached here. We will seek for correction with the journal.”
We’ll see how/if he deals with the harder to explain concerns by Clare Francis and other anons.
Thanks for bringing attention to this LS.
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Frequent co-author with David Argyle, Lisa Y Pang.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=pang+ly+argyle+dj&sort=date
Cell Cycle. 2011 Mar 15;10(6):932-50. doi: 10.4161/cc.10.6.15012. Epub 2011 Mar 15.
Problematic data figures 8 and 10. Much more similar and different (different treatments) than expected.See: https://imgur.com/VNh6zaa
p21(WAF1) is component of a positive feedback loop that maintains the p53 transcriptional program
Lisa Y Pang 1, Mary Scott, Richard L Hayward, Hisham Mohammed, C Bruce A Whitelaw, Graeme C M Smith, Ted R Hupp
Affiliation
1CRUK Cell Signalling Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Problematic data figures 8 and 10.
Much more similar and different (different treatments) than expected.
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J Biol Chem. 2009 Jan 2;284(1):334-344. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M805165200. Epub 2008 Oct 30.
Peptide combinatorial libraries identify TSC2 as a death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) death domain-binding protein and reveal a stimulatory role for DAPK in mTORC1 signaling
Craig Stevens 1, Yao Lin 1, Ben Harrison 1, Lindsay Burch 1, Rachel A Ridgway 1, Owen Sansom 1, Ted Hupp 2
Affiliations
1 Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, CRUK p53 Signal Transduction Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XR, United Kingdom and the CRUK Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow G61 1BD, United Kingdom.
2Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, CRUK p53 Signal Transduction Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XR, United Kingdom and the CRUK Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow G61 1BD, United Kingdom.
Electronic address: ted.hupp@ed.ac.uk
PMID: 18974095 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M805165200
Figure 5. Much more similar after vertical flip, and vertical and horizontal re-sizing than expected..
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Mol Cell Biol . 2003 Dec;23(23):8846-61. doi: 10.1128/mcb.23.23.8846-8861.2003.
The proline repeat domain of p53 binds directly to the transcriptional coactivator p300 and allosterically controls DNA-dependent acetylation of p53
David Dornan 1, Harumi Shimizu, Lindsay Burch, Amanda J Smith, Ted R Hupp
Affiliation
1Cancer Research UK Laboratories, P53 Signal Transduction Group, Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 9SY, United Kingdom.
PMID: 14612423 PMCID: PMC262654 DOI: 10.1128/mcb.23.23.8846-8861.2003
Figure 4A. Much more similar than expected.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/F9B2C5E784EBA863D4574002FAADD6#1
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EMBO Rep. 2003 Aug;4(8):787-92. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.embor901.
Allosteric effects mediate CHK2 phosphorylation of the p53 transactivation domain
Ashley Craig 1, Mary Scott, Lindsay Burch, Graeme Smith, Kathryn Ball, Ted Hupp
Affiliation
1
Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Cancer Research UK Laboratories, University of Dundee, UK.
PMID: 12897801 PMCID: PMC1326341 DOI: 10.1038/sj.embor.embor901
Problematic data figure 1D. Much more similar than expected.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/E3F5088239A7881A90C2CCE6762E56#1
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Outrageous. Unfortunately it is commom. I have first hand experience with such a bully that has left a long trail of victims at DTU Wind Energy. Management knows everything and does nothing. Well nothing to help the victims. They promoted him recently to head of section.
I admire the work you do Leonid. On the other hand, it brings very dark memories of abuse, bullying, manipulation, steeling credit, and having to work on the basis of non-reproducable research. More than research experience I gained expert knowledge on machiavellianism and psychopathy during those years.
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The image duplications could be referred to Professor Jonathan Seckl.
At least David Argyle and Jonathan Seckl can commiserate on not spotting the duplications.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/principals-office/vice-principals-senior-leadership/senior-leadership-team/seckl
Professor Jonathan Seckl (OBE, BSc, MBBS, PhD, PhD(hc), FRCPE, FMedSci, FRSE, MAE)
Senior Vice-Principal
A learning set: https://pubpeer.com/publications/B8213982BA13202EF2157FC41755BC
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Fraternal greetings.
Another learning set.
https://pubpeer.com/search?q=michael+seckl
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Before the wheels completely come off the “behavioural epigenetics” bandwagon David Argyle might apply his highly productive technique of seeing if something works in other animals and then replicating the work in the cat, dog and the horse.
Wheels starting to come off the bandwagon. David Argyle should not wait too much longer before jumping on the bandwagon.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/B8213982BA13202EF2157FC41755BC
https://pubpeer.com/publications/1819427498922634DF20853C2A1DBE
https://pubpeer.com/publications/313D560D1DB52D930B3FD9E6C66D17
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“Also too many employees have left, dozens of them, all traumatised by the bullying, and this never looks good on an employer.”
That is not on the metric for employers.
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https://ebvs.eu/colleges/ECVIM-CA/members/prof-david-argyle
“Prof David Argyle
BVMS PhD DECVIM-CA (Oncology) FRSE FRCVS
EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Small Animal Oncology
Member of European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine – Companion Animals
He was senior lecturer in clinical oncology at Glasgow until 2002 when he became head of veterinary oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. In 2005 he returned to Edinburgh University to the William Dick Chair of Veterinary Clinical Studies.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023307002523?via%3Dihub
The Veterinary Journal
Volume 175, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 69-75
Isolation and characterisation of cancer stem cells from canine osteosarcoma
H.Wilson a M.Huelsmeyer a R.Chun a K.M.Young b K.Friedrichs b D.J.Argyl c
a Departments of Medical Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
b Departments of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
c Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK
Problematic data figure 3. Much more similar than expected after vertical stretching and shunting over 2 lanes.
The samples are different cell lines.
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The Veterinary Journal
Volume 175, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 69-75
Figure 3.
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Cancers (Basel). 2011 Mar 30;3(2):1744-62. doi: 10.3390/cancers3021744.
Canine Mammary Cancer Stem Cells are Radio- and Chemo- Resistant and Exhibit an Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Phenotype
Lisa Y Pang 1, Alejandro Cervantes-Arias, Rod W Else, David J Argyle
Affiliations collapse
Affiliation
1Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, UK. lisa.pang@ed.ac.uk.
PMID: 24212780 PMCID: PMC3757388 DOI: 10.3390/cancers3021744
https://pubpeer.com/publications/0EE7B06D112BBAA9A873A9BA938088#1
Figure 3C. Apparent duplicate image.
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Cancers (Basel). 2011 Mar 30;3(2):1744-62
Figure 3C.
“Just like that!” as Tommy Cooper used to say when one of his magic tricks failed, but in this case the magic worked.
Authors should be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Cancer Biol Ther. 2011 Jun 1;11(11):927-37. doi: 10.4161/cbt.11.11.15525. Epub 2011 Jun 1.
Studies on the inhibition of feline EGFR in squamous cell carcinoma: enhancement of radiosensitivity and rescue of resistance to small molecule inhibitors
Gurå T Bergkvist 1, David J Argyle, Lisa Y Pang, Rhona Muirhead, Donald A Yool
Affiliation
1Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, Division of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Veterinary Centre, Roslin, Midlothian, UK. Gura.Bergkvist@ed.ac.uk
PMID: 21464610 DOI: 10.4161/cbt.11.11.15525
Figure 3. Much more similar than expected.
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Made in Scotland!
Mol Cell Biol. 2004 Feb; 24(4): 1540–1559.doi: 10.1128/MCB.24.4.1540-1559.2004PMCID: PMC344183PMID: 14749371
Invasion of Normal Human Fibroblasts Induced by v-Fos Is Independent of Proliferation, Immortalization, and the Tumor Suppressors p16INK4a and p53
Linda A. Scott, J. Keith Vass, E. Kenneth Parkinson, David A. F. Gillespie, Joseph N. Winnie, and Bradford W. Ozanne*
Author information
Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK Beatson Laboratories, Glasgow G61 1BD, United Kingdom
*Corresponding author. Mailing address: Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Garscube Estate, Switchback Rd., Glasgow G61 1BD, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 (0)141 330 3971. Fax: 44 (0)141 330 6426. E-mail: b.ozanne@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Problematic data figure 4A. Much more similar than expected.
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Oncotarget. 2014 Aug 15;5(15):6142-67. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.2178.
AKT regulates NPM dependent ARF localization and p53mut stability in tumors
Garth Hamilton 1, Aswin G Abraham 1, Jennifer Morton 2, Oliver Sampson 3, Dafni E Pefani 3, Svetlana Khoronenkova 3, Anna Grawenda 3, Angelos Papaspyropoulos 3, Nigel Jamieson 4, Colin McKay 4, Owen Sansom 2, Grigory L Dianov 3, Eric O’Neill 3
Affiliations
1Cancer Research UK/MRC Oxford Institute, Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, UK; These authors contributed equally to this work.
2Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Garscube Estate, Switchback Road, Glasgow, UK.
3Cancer Research UK/MRC Oxford Institute, Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, UK.4West of Scotland Pancreatic Unit and University Department of Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Alexandra Parade. Glasgow.
PMID: 25071014 PMCID: PMC4171619 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.2178
Problematic data figure 4D. Much more similar and different than expected.
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Br J Cancer. 2004 Jul 19; 91(2): 381–388.
Published online 2004 Jun 8. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601913
PMCID: PMC2409803
PMID: 15188000
Evidence for colorectal cancer cell specificity of aspirin effects on NFκB signalling and apoptosis
F V N Din,1 M G Dunlop,1,* and L A Stark1
Author information
11Colon Cancer Genetics Group, University of Edinburgh Department of Oncology and MRC Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, Crewe Rd, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, Scotland
*Author for correspondence: Malcolm.Dunlop@hgu.mrc.ac.uk
Problematic data figure 3. Much more similar than expected.
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Vet J. 2013 Jun;196(3):414-23. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2012.10.021. Epub 2012 Dec 7.
Feline mammary carcinoma stem cells are tumorigenic, radioresistant, chemoresistant and defective in activation of the ATM/p53 DNA damage pathway
L Y Pang 1, T M Blacking, R W Else, A Sherman, H M Sang, B A Whitelaw, T R Hupp, D J Argyle
Affiliation
1The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Edinburgh EH25 9RG, UK. lisa.pang@ed.ac.uk
PMID: 23219486 PMCID: PMC3696732 DOI: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2012.10.021
As spotted by Actinopolyspora Biskrensis
Figure 2G. Much more similar than expected.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/AF4153D2BBECB11405DF1300D71678#1
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SLAS Discov. 2020 Aug;25(7):770-782. doi: 10.1177/2472555220917115. Epub 2020 May 22.
High-Content Phenotypic Profiling in Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Identifies Selectively Active Pharmacological Classes of Drugs for Repurposing and Chemical Starting Points for Novel Drug Discovery
Rebecca E Hughes 1, Richard J R Elliott 1, Alison F Munro 1, Ashraff Makda 1, J Robert O’Neill 2, Ted Hupp 1, Neil O Carragher 1
Affiliations
1MRC Institute of Genetics & Molecular Medicine, The University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
2Cambridge Oesophagogastric Centre, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK.
PMID: 32441181 PMCID: PMC7372582 DOI: 10.1177/2472555220917115
As spotted by Actinopolyspora Biskrensis.
Figure 1A/ Much more similar than expected.
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Sad, sad, sad. Sitting picking faults in others. A failed scientist bitching about a successful one. Your ‘journalism’ merely shows you can copy, paste and replicate bias articles from other ‘journalists’. Sloppy.
Your behaviour is bullying towards David Argyle. Funny how you fail to see that you ganging up on one person, repeatedly, with no chance to reply is anything other than being a bully and smearing your opinions around like the faecal ranting of an incel.
Your writing shows more about how you feel about things that have happened to you in the past. Why not write about your personal gripes and letdowns rather than plagiarising and perpetuating those of others. You may then actually be able to write something of value and improve your career opportunities!
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Oh my reporting hurt you, so sorry. Well, why don’t you try to sue me then, Dave? Be a man, send lawyers!
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“A failed scientist bitching about a successful one.”
Who is the successful [scientist]?
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The bullying by Argyle also extended to the world famous (“Dolly the Sheep) Roslin Institute as reported twice in the Sunday Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marginalised-roslin-director-quits-post-7jczzbprg
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/roslin-students-call-for-bullying-inquiry-after-director-leaves-0kk70gjbx
There is still no permanent director in The Roslin Institute since Prof Riley was bullied out by Argyle and his superiors.
Well, why would anyone with integrity want to have a bully and dodgy scientist as a line manager? unless they wanted to study cardiac stem cells!!
Argyle and his bosses continue to cover up the Vet School bullying by a deflection technique – currently with a survey by a PR outfit called “Culture Builders” whose “report” (fully edited by the management before released to the minions!) does not mention bullying once !
This glossy piece of PR nonsense (lots of lovely photos of cuddly animals and happy students) was termed a whitewash and corporate rubbish by the few staff who felt it worthwhile to read.
The management have lied to staff by stating that the University Trade Unions fully support this shallow piece of propaganda and the unions have now demanded a retraction of this statement!
More to come in this prolonged sorry saga
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” the world famous (“Dolly the Sheep) Roslin Institute as reported twice in the Sunday Times”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1512377/I-didnt-clone-Dolly-the-sheep-says-prof.html
“Although Dr. Wilmut was credited as the lead scientist on the research that produced Dolly, he later said that Dr. Campbell deserved “66 percent” of the credit for the work. The order of the names on their published research announcing Dolly’s creation, Dr. Wilmut said, had been determined by both men by prearrangement.
It had been, in fact, a watershed idea of Dr. Campbell’s that made Dolly possible at all.”
Another sorry saga.
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After a much heralded and prolonged selection and interview process for the new director of the Roslin Institute, by Argyle and the most senior university management including the vice-chancellor (all who have continued to cover up Argyle’s bullying) the appointee to the position has suddenly withdrawn for “personal reasons”.
Is it that hey and the other candidates became aware of the facts. Bullying has consequences. When will the penny drop with Edinburgh University Management?
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Maybe Richard Marais can recommend someone?
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” interview process for the new director of the Roslin Institute”
The committee will chose the kind of person it wants.
It chose David Argyle. David Argyle is a product of vigorous selection.
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2 corrections for David Argyle:-
https://pubpeer.com/publications/4EEED05EA78D7DACED424C693B5124#2
In the original article, there was a mistake in the legend for figure 9C as published. Splicing was performed in the image to remove redundant lanes, but this was not originally stated in the figure legend. The band representing ZR-751 t-ERK had also been spliced in wrongly. This error has now been corrected. Figure 9C has now been moved to the supplementary figures and has been uploaded separately. The correct legend appears below.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/AF4153D2BBECB11405DF1300D71678#2
2021 corrigendum. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023321001398?via%3Dihub
The authors regret that in the original article there was a mistake in Figure 2G where the beta-actin band was repeated and horizontally flipped. The authors apologise for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of this article in anyway.
Please see below for the correct Figure 2G:
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