The Timeless Art of Emile Levy

Not only Smut Clyde is a connoisseur of paintings. Elisabeth Bik also discovered an interest in the classic canvas art, specifically in the works of Émile Lévy, the French painter from the 19th century. She found image duplications there!

Of course not, we are talking about a different Emile Levy, the Canadian diabetologist and gastroenterology researcher, professor at the University of Montreal and one of scientific directors at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center. Like his long-dead namesake in France, the Canadian’s studio also created amazing artworks, and now Levy keeps complaining about the horrible injustice of his three PLOS retractions.

It is not my first virtual visit to Montreal. At the McGill University, cancer researcher and anti-aging enthusiast Moshe Szyf, together with his colleague Shafaat Rabbani, also blessed the world with interesting art, not oil on canvas though, but in the good old Photoshop.

Szyf and Rabbani: old gels evil, new genomics cool

Apparently the McGill University did decide to do at least something, because Szyf sent lawyers demanding of me to delete my earlier article and to publicly apologise. I drew a cartoon instead, because art is for everyone:

Moshe Szyf demands an apology

Just as Szyf’s, Levy’s conclusions were also all entirely unaffected, or so he insists. But he was less lucky with editors.

But then again, for Levy and his colleagues at the neighbouring University of Montreal, there never will be any misconduct investigation. I mean, the university officials don’t even reply to emails. Previously, I had the displeasure to deal with them regarding another problematic case, that of the biomaterials fabricator May Griffith, professor at the department of ophthalmology in Montreal. She was previously found guilty of research misconduct and medical ethics breach by the Linköping University in Sweden, and also accused by her former colleague of intellectual property theft. Eventually, the University of Montreal’s rector Guy Breton refused to admit the evidence I submitted, declared Griffith and his university to be the rightful owners of her Linköping colleague’s research, and me as blacklisted from submitting anything ever again. Read here:

May Griffith innocent of misconduct, decide Montreal, Swedish Court and Ethics Board

Also now, University of Montreal ignored all my emails. And there is no national research integrity authority in Canada, which probably closes the case.

But I know you came here to look at fake gels, do give me a minute, we are getting there.

The PubPeer evidence is actually 8 years old, all posted by Elisabeth Bik, who also mentioned:

“These concerns have been reported to the journal per email in May 2014“

Retraction Watch cited in this regard the PLOS spokesperson David Knudson:

“The case involving these four articles is from this historical backlog. PLOS began discussing the concerns with the authors in 2014, and we reactivated the case in January 2022. Unfortunately, some of the 2014 records for this case are no longer accessible to PLOS staff, as we acknowledged in the public notices.

We retracted pone.0011817, pone.0040992, and pone.0053725 because the extensive figure concerns cannot be resolved without the original primary data. According to the corresponding author’s statements and PLOS’ current records, the primary data are not available at this time.

PLOS ONE is still investigating pone.0063456.“

OK, now the fake gels you kept demanding, and the three belated retractions which all were published on 14 April 2022:

Rame Taha , Ernest Seidman , Genevieve Mailhot , François Boudreau , Fernand-Pierre Gendron , Jean-François Beaulieu , Daniel Ménard , Edgard Delvin , Devendra Amre , Emile Levy Oxidative stress and mitochondrial functions in the intestinal Caco-2/15 cell line PLoS ONE (2010) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011817

The retraction notice mentioned:

“The PLOS ONE Editors retract this article. Although we have been unable to review the primary data, the nature and extent of image concerns call into question the integrity of data reporting in the published figures and the reliability of the article’s results and conclusions.

GM, FB, and FPG agreed with the retraction and apologise for the issues with the published article. JFB, ED, and EL did not agree with the retraction. RT, DM, and DA either did not respond directly or could not be reached. ES is deceased.”

The deceased, Ernest Seidman, was professor at the McGill University and Levy’s mentor. In April 2018, Levy, together with other Seidman’s mentees, held a speech on the occasion of their patron’s birthday. A Festschrift was issued, which is a German academic tradition (especially in medicine) of ceremonial speeches and banquet for your Doctorvater, the patriarch who fathered your own professorial career. Former mentees (who must be professors or other society elites, or they won’t be are invited) hold speeches in honour of their Godfather, as Levy did:

““Ernie wears several hats, as a superb physician, innovative researcher, teacher, compassionate mentor and judicious administrator,” said Dr. Emile Levy from Université de Montréal. “This festschrift recognizes not only his remarkable scientific and clinical contributions to the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition, but also his outstanding achievements as teacher, mentor, supportive colleague and friend.””

Seidman died the next year, in December 2019, McGill now has an award named after him. And now his legacy contains a string of papers with fake data, all with Levy as key author. Put this in your Festschrift, Emile…

Another regular co-author is Edgard Delvin, who like Levy did not agree to the retraction. Delvin is also a director at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center of the University of Montreal. I wrote to him, but my message was automatically rejected, just as the University of Montreal rector Guy Breton blocked my emails before.

In another PLOS One retraction, Delvin became unreachable also:

Emilie Grenier , Carole Garofalo , Edgard Delvin , Emile Levy Modulatory role of PYY in transport and metabolism of cholesterol in intestinal epithelial cells PLoS ONE (2012) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040992

The retraction notice mentioned:

“The corresponding author states that the similarity between proteins is due to the stripping and re-probing of the same blot, and clarifies that some blots were spliced to remove extra lanes and/or duplicate or triplicate samples from the panel. The underlying data for the figures or concern are no longer available.

In light of the concerns affecting multiple figure panels that question the integrity of these data, the PLOS ONE Editors retract this article.

EG, CG and ED either did not respond directly or could not be reached. EL did not agree with the retraction.”

Same with the third retraction, Delvin unreachable, Levy opposing, while the retraction notice mentioned same excuses about stripping and re-probing of blots:

Marie Claude Denis , Alexandra Furtos , Stéphanie Dudonné , Alain Montoudis , Carole Garofalo , Yves Desjardins , Edgard Delvin , Emile Levy Apple peel polyphenols and their beneficial actions on oxidative stress and inflammation PLoS ONE (2013) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053725

A fourth PLOS One paper only got an Expression of Concern, but it’s also problematic and liable to be retracted soon:

Sabrina Yara , Jean-Claude Lavoie , Jean-François Beaulieu , Edgard Delvin , Devendra Amre , Valerie Marcil , Ernest Seidman , Emile Levy Iron-ascorbate-mediated lipid peroxidation causes epigenetic changes in the antioxidant defense in intestinal epithelial cells: impact on inflammation PLoS ONE (2013) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063456

Again:

“The corresponding author stated that the underlying data for other Fig panels in question were provided to PLOS ONE in 2014 but are no longer available in the laboratory records. PLOS is unable to access the journal’s 2014 correspondence records for this case. We sincerely regret that this case was not resolved much sooner after the prior correspondence.”

I wrote to Levy, and he provided me with what looks like a longer version of the explanation he already shared with Retraction Watch:

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What a tragedy! Levy’s innocent papers were assassinated, slaughtered in cold blood, by ruthless criminals of PLOS One! Revenge! Revenge!

Also Retraction Watch shamed PLOS for “losing original correspondence“, already in the title of the article. Let us assume for a moment that PLOS really can’t find these emails from 2014 because they lost them, and not because the emails with allegedly attached raw data were actually never sent. Well, I heard many times of scientists losing original data to thieves and lab floods. But losing your own emails? I asked Levy how he and his university achieved the incredible feat of losing these messages and their digital attachments, having same academic employer during these 8 years. He didn’t reply anymore.

Levy also categorically refused to discuss his other papers on PubPeer. Even when I pointed him towards these threads, he pretended they don’t exist. Good thing the University of Montreal sees it similarly and promised to Levy to never investigate his lab for research misconduct.

Want more fake blots?

Here one of Levy’s, with his colleague Delvin:

Valérie MARCIL , Edgard DELVIN , Alain Théophile SANE , André TREMBLAY , Emile LEVY Oxidative stress influences cholesterol efflux in THP-1 macrophages: Role of ATP-binding cassette A1 and nuclear factors Cardiovascular Research (2006) doi: 10.1016/j.cardiores.2006.08.024 

Here a paper with Delvin, and Levy’ deceased mentor Seidman:

Cloned bands. Poor Ernie Seidman. Look at this one:

Emilie Grenier, Françoise Schwalm Maupas , Jean-François Beaulieu , Ernest Seidman , Edgard Delvin, Alain Sane , Eric Tremblay , Carole Garofalo , Emile Levy Effect of retinoic acid on cell proliferation and differentiation as well as on lipid synthesis, lipoprotein secretion, and apolipoprotein biogenesis AJP Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology (2007) doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00295.2007

This one could have been an innocent mistake, but seeing what else these people published…

Apparently bowel inflammation can be treated with apple peels and Photoshop:

Marie-Claude Denis , Denis Roy , Pantea Rahmani Yeganeh , Yves Desjardins , Thibault Varin , Nour Haddad , Devendra Amre , Alain Théophile Sané , Carole Garofalo , Alexandra Furtos , Natalie Patey , Edgard Delvin , Eric Tremblay , André Marette, Jean-François Beaulieu, Emile Levy Apple peel polyphenols: a key player in the prevention and treatment of experimental inflammatory bowel disease Clinical Science (2016) doi: 10.1042/cs20160524 

More apple peel magic:

Pantea Rahmani Yeganeh , Jade Leahy , Schohraya Spahis , Natalie Patey , Yves Desjardins , Denis Roy , Edgard Delvin , Carole Garofalo , Jean-Philippe Leduc-Gaudet , David St-Pierre , Jean-François Beaulieu , André Marette , Gilles Gouspillou , Emile Levy Apple peel polyphenols reduce mitochondrial dysfunction in mice with DSS-induced ulcerative colitis The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2018.03.008 

Would you like some cranberries instead?

Marie-Claude Denis , Yves Desjardins , Alexandra Furtos , Valérie Marcil , Stéphanie Dudonné , Alain Montoudis , Carole Garofalo , Edgard Delvin , André Marette , Emile Levy Prevention of oxidative stress, inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in the intestine by different cranberry phenolic fractions Clinical Science (2015) doi: 10.1042/cs20140210 

Really, maybe there is a connection between pushing plant polyphenols to cure all possible diseases and data fudgery? In any case, Levy patented the apple peel thing as a cure for liver cirrhosis.

The Fraud Squad

More on the joys of plant polyphenols:

Mireille Koudoufio , Francis Feldman , Lena Ahmarani , Edgard Delvin , Schohraya Spahis , Yves Desjardins , Emile Levy Intestinal protection by proanthocyanidins involves anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory actions in association with an improvement of insulin sensitivity, lipid and glucose homeostasis Scientific Reports (2021) doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80587-5 

One of the authors, the University of Montreal tenured researcher Schohraya Spahis (whom Levy mentioned in his email), explained on PubPeer:

“The technique of stripping and re-probing a single membrane, instead of running and blotting multiple gels, was used to minimize inter-membrane discrepancy and save samples, products and time […] It turned out that indeed there was a confusion in the numbering of the blots during the assembly of the 2 upper panels of Figure 7. Order has been restored appropriately. We have reanalyzed the data in Figure 7 following your message and are providing you with the files. The new analyses taking into account the correct location of the reference protein β-actin, show the same trends.“

Well, the pAKT and AKT blots in Panel F are definitely from two different gels, so much for stripping and re-probing. And the actin blot in E is identical to the AKT blot in F, and it was not a mistake of oversight, because look at this:

A similar problem is in panels G, H and I, there are two actin blots which fit neither the pI3K nor the pPI3K gel. And so on. Basically, the authors never had the appropriate loading controls for their experiments, but pretended otherwise. But hey, great to know they repeated it and found “the same trends”.

Dr Spahis chose not to comment on this case:

Emilie Grenier , Geneviève Mailhot, Danielle Dion , Zaava Ravid , Schohraya Spahis, Moise Bendayan, Emile Levy Role of the apical and basolateral domains of the enterocyte in the regulation of cholesterol transport by a high glucose concentration Biochemistry and cell biology = Biochimie et biologie cellulaire (2013) doi: 10.1139/bcb-2013-0053

Silence here also:

Emile Levy, Geneviève Lalonde , Edgard Delvin , Mounib Elchebly , Louis P. Précourt , Nabil G. Seidah , Schohraya Spahis , Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret, Ehud Ziv Intestinal and hepatic cholesterol carriers in diabetic Psammomys obesus Endocrinology (2010) doi: 10.1210/en.2009-0866

Rememberer how Levy explained that he “I have never compiled the student data myself, and I have never made a single figure.”? I wonder if it’s true, and he became professor of Cellular Biology without ever working in the lab himself, and now doesn’t even understand what the problem with his papers is.

Disclaimer: I am aware that a number of scientists I wrote about here and elsewhere (Levy, Seidman, Szyf etc) are Jewish. What can I do, I myself am a self-hating Jew.

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