Croce begat Calin, and Calin begat Girnita…

Leonard Girnita, Romania-born associate professor of pathology at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden is under research misconduct investigation. He is Carlo Croce’s academic grandchild.

You all probably heard of Carlo Croce, the infamous cancer cheater from Italy with 11 retractions and over a hundred fraudulent papers on PubPeer, who unsuccessfully sued everyone including the New York Times, his peer critic David Sanders, and his employer Ohio State University, and still wasn’t sacked. Then, Croce himself was sued by his own lawyers for outstanding bills. To get money, this crook announced to mortgage his famous collection of Italian baroque paintings which he boasted to have bought ingeniously cheap. But Smut Clyde suspects that Italian baroque art is most likely fake though, which makes it worthless, i.e. the peddler of fraudulent cancer research became victim of art forgery criminals. Call it karma if you like.

But this story is not about Croce. The Ohio State professor had a postdoc, a Romanian freshly arrived to Croce’s US lab from a PhD in Italy, speaking perfect Italian. That Romanian was George Calin, and Calin convinced his mentor that he discovered something magical. The two men became the foundling fathers of the microRNA (or miRNA) field in oncology, a field which soon exploded into something that gigantic that even Chinese papermills built their business on it. In fact it seems Calin’s fake science done in Croce’s lab indirectly founded the Chinese papermill industry.

The scientific sea of miR- and exosome-related knowledge

There is not much difference in the final outcome between the “original research” in papers by Calin & Croce and what the Chinese papermills deliver to their paying customers: in both cases research results are falsified or fabricated to fit someone’s vision. At least with papermills, no animals are being tortured to produce this fictional science.

But Calin and Croce were torturing mice by letting tumour xenografts grow too big to get the desired result. Everyone looks away, their employers as well as journal publishers: laws and rules don’t apply to science stars like these.

Thanks to his miRNA “discoveries”, Calin became a bigwig himself, working at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, where research fraud is not just common, but produced on a massive industrial scale.

Anil Sood and other questionable stars of MD Anderson

Croce’s lab became a hub for dishonest scientists, mostly from Italy and Romania, seeking to cash in with bad science. The worst offenders are now occupying industry and faculty jobs all over the world, assigning to each other the jobs and research grants you unsuccessfully applied for. Croce’s talent is not just producing fake science, but also establishing the academic mafia networks to place these forgeries in top journals and make sure they won’t get retracted there. Even now, after all the fraud revelations, Croce is still publishing well. Like his recent miRNA papers Pepe et al 2022 in PNAS (where the baroque cheater “contributes” without proper peer review as a US Academy of Sciences member) or Kudo et al 2022 in Cell Death & Differentiation, a rotten Nature Publishing Group outlet run by a bunch of dishonest Italians plus Guido Kroemer.

Cell Death and Depravity

Calin learned the high art from his master very well, and he in turn taught it to his own mentees. Like Croce, he can shrug of controversies about his work. So what that the results of the seminal Calin-Croce paper in NEJM from 2005 about miRNA in leukaemia were immediately found to be irreproducible – the study went on to be cited almost 1800 times, not all by papermills.

So what that Calin has over 30 papers on PubPeer flagged for fake data, many of those with his MD Anderson cheater colleagues Raghu Kalluri, Anil Sood and Gabriel Lopez-Berestein. At MD Anderson, they will sack you if you don’t fake your research results, and I am not exaggerating. Don’t mess with Texas!

Anil Sood and how much MD Anderson doesn’t care: whistleblowers speak out

Sometimes, Calin et al were too lazy to use Photoshop even, because Croce gamed the peer review process in top journals so perfectly that he could publish utter trash figures like this:

George Adrian Calin, Calin Dan Dumitru , Masayoshi Shimizu , Roberta Bichi , Simona Zupo , Evan Noch , Hansjuerg Aldler , Sashi Rattan , Michael Keating , Kanti Rai , Laura Rassenti , Thomas Kipps , Massimo Negrini , Florencia Bullrich , Carlo M. Croce Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro- RNA genes miR15 and miR16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2002) doi: 10.1073/pnas.242606799 

Sure, this miRNA16 data is nothing but trolling, made easily possible because this PNAS paper was “Contributed by Carlo M. Croce“, meaning he organised the peer review of his paper himself. But even in that parody of a research figure, Calin and Croce hid an Easter egg in plain sight, look:

This seminal paper of miRNA in blood cancer was cited over 4000 times (sic!), and mostly not by papermills. Next time someone blathers on about citation metrics as an alleged indicator of reproducibility, tell them about Croce and Calin.

But this story is not about Calin either, because what’s the point. In US academia, as long as a cheater brings in money, he is untouchable (he, because female cheaters live more riskily). And because the cheaters run vast science mafia networks and game the publishing system, they always bring in money.

The story is about Calin’s own postdoc, another Romanian named Leonard Girnita, who in 2008 returned to the Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Sweden, with his wife (and regular co-author) Ada Girnita in tow. It was at KI where both Girnitas previously did PhD with Olle Larsson (another co-author on many problematic papers), and where Leonard Girnita now works towards becoming full professor. Girnita’s problem may be that Sweden does mind research fraud. An investigation at the national authority NPOF has began, after pseudonymous sleuth Clare Francis who posted on PubPeer already 25 of his papers for forged data. There could have been more for sure, but the sleuth got bored and moved on to a new target. Feel free to take over.

Have a look at this paper with both Girnitas as PhD trainees of Larsson, announcing the anti-cancer drug Picropodophyllin:

Gel bands cloned and digitally inserted, it seems. It was the foundation paper for a biotech company. The last author Magnus Axelson was until his retirement (or death?) professor of clinical chemistry at KI, where together with Larsson (apparently his son-in-law) he founded in 2003 the now defunct biotech spin-off Axelar (AXELson+LARsson, how clever). The KI spin-off sought to market IGF-1 inhibitors like the picropodophyllin AXL1717 for cancer therapy. Basically, the fake science you see in this article was meant to make Larsson and Axelson rich.

Another example:

Radu Vasilcanu, Daiana Vasilcanu, Bita Sehat , Shucheng Yin , Ada Girnita , Magnus Axelson , Leonard Girnita Insulin-like growth factor type-I receptor-dependent phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 but not Akt (protein kinase B) can be induced by picropodophyllin Molecular pharmacology (2008) doi: 10.1124/mol.107.040014

Girnita’s Romanian mentees Radu and Daiana Vasilcanu remained in Sweden, where both work in medicine, he is a gynaecologist, and she an oncologist, responsible for medicinal product safety at the Swedish Medical Product Agency. Judging from the quality of their PhD research with Girnita, I am sure Swedish patients can trust this couple fully.

And as for Girnita, that paper was the fanfare to his triumphant return to KI in 2008, generously sponsored as Young Investigator by the Swedish Cancer Society. In this academic youth, Girnita also dabbed in ophthalmology, where he discovered together with KI professor Stefan Seregard a cure for eye melanoma:

Mario A. Economou, Sandra Andersson, Diana Vasilcanu, Charlotta All-Ericsson , Eline Menu , Ada Girnita , Leonard Girnita, Magnus Axelson , Stefan Seregard, Olle Larsson Oral picropodophyllin (PPP) is well tolerated in vivo and inhibits IGF-1R expression and growth of uveal melanoma Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (2008) doi: 10.1167/iovs.07-0819

The melanoma cure with an IGF-1 inhibitor was nothing but Photoshop fraud, yet its efficacy was perfectly reproducible, proven by the fact this paper was published twice, simultaneously but in different journals. All figures and all text are copy-pasted, as it seems without a word changed, also the fake figure with duplicated gel bands was cloned:

Mario A. Economou, Sandra Andersson, Diana Vasilcanu, Charlotta All-Ericsson, Eline Menu, Ada Girnita, Leonard Girnita, Magnus Axelson, Stefan Seregard, Olle Larsson Oral picropodophyllin (PPP) is well tolerated in vivo and inhibits IGF-1R expression and growth of uveal melanoma Acta Ophthalmologica (2008) doi: 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2008.01184.x 

But that was of course not the only time when the Girnitas, their PhD mentor Larsson and Seregard published the same paper twice. Here a recycled version of Girnita et al Clin Cancer Res 2006:

Ada Girnita, Charlotta All-Ericsson, Mario A. Economou , Kristina Aström, Magnus Axelson, Stefan Seregard , Olle Larsson, Leonard Girnita The insulin-like growth factor-I receptor inhibitor picropodophyllin causes tumor regression and attenuates mechanisms involved in invasion of uveal melanoma cells Acta Ophthalmologica (2008) doi: 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2008.01183.x

Seregard did not reply to my emails. Maybe this eye doctors need new glasses to see what kind of fraud he published. Like this, more progress in cancer research, again by Seregard and the Girnitas:

Huiyuan Zheng , Claire Worrall , Hongchang Shen , Tarik Issad, Stefan Seregard , Ada Girnita , Leonard Girnita Selective recruitment of G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) controls signaling of the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2012) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1118359109

You can find more trash from this productive Girnita-Serensen collaboration on PubPeer.

Back then, KI must have thought themselves lucky to have their genius Girnita back. The man is so amazingly productive, and now we know why. To accompany the previous PNAS paper, here another one, published almost back-to-back and handled by same academic editor Robert Lefkowitz (Nobel Prize laureate, with whom Girnita used to collaborate):

Huiyuan Zheng , Hongchang Shen , Iulian Oprea , Claire Worrall , Radu Stefanescu , Ada Girnita , Leonard Girnita β-Arrestin–biased agonism as the central mechanism of action for insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor–targeting antibodies in Ewing’s sarcoma Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2012) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1216348110

Because of fake science like the above and below, Huiyuan Zheng made it to assistant professor in Girnita’s lab at Karolinska. Here another nice paper from same year, done in collaboration with KI professor of dermatology Mona Ståhle:

A Girnita , H Zheng , A Grönberg , L Girnita , M Ståhle Identification of the cathelicidin peptide LL-37 as agonist for the type I insulin-like growth factor receptor Oncogene (2012) doi: 10.1038/onc.2011.239

Visit PubPeer for more in that masterpiece.

Now, Clare Francis initially stumbled upon Girnita’s name because he was a co-author on a fake paper by the former KI rector Karin Dahlman-Wright, I wrote a lot about her. Dahlman-Wright was found guilty of misconduct following our notification, but then she sued and won in court. The misconduct findings of KI and NPOF were overthrown, but Dahlman-Wright’s career did not recover, rightly so.

Misconduct findings fell KI Vice-President Dahlman-Wright

This dishonest scientist, who previously made sure Macchiarini whistleblowers were sentenced for research misconduct, remains at KI as an unsackable professor of endocrinology. A warning to all universities to act on cheaters before they obtain full tenure. Girnita is not a full professor yet.

The extra joke was that the fraudulent Dahlman-Wright/Girnita coproduction Jia et al 2016 was fixed with a correction, despite KI and NPOF having determined it was a “forgery”, the first author and Dahlman-Wright both sanctioned for research misconduct in that very same paper.

The Karin Dahlman-Wright Show

Just like Calin was attracted to Croce’s lab because of their shared “values” and “talents”, so was Girnita, freshly graduated at KI in 2002, driven to do postdoc at Calin’s lab at MD Anderson. Girnita brought with him exactly the right talents he learned under Larsson. This could have been the young Romanian’s artistic portfolio to qualify to work for his compatriot in USA, the Croce-trained Calin:

Leonard Girnita, Sudha K. Shenoy , Bita Sehat , Radu Vasilcanu , Ada Girnita , Robert J. Lefkowitz , Olle Larsson {beta}-Arrestin is crucial for ubiquitination and down-regulation of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor by acting as adaptor for the MDM2 E3 ligase Journal of Biological Chemistry (2005) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m501129200 

Nice fake gels. See the co-author and 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry laureate Lefkowitz who later went on to approve two fake PNAS papers by Girnita?

Bert Vogelstein and Heiko Hermeking mull lawsuits

Or how about this PNAS paper with just 3 authors and “Edited by Bert Vogelstein“, another cancer research bigwig I wrote about:

Larsson denies all responsibility for his joint PubPeer record with his mentee Girnita, as the former told me in an email:

“I beleive that Dr Girnita may be able to comment on this. You already wrote him. I have not access to the raw data.”

Sure, but what about the papers Larsson published twice as corresponding author? Did this also happen behind his back?

In any case, if Larsson insist to have nothing to do with those fake figures, that particular 3 author paper lists only the Girnita couple. The wife remained silent, the husband wrote to me on 9 May 2022:

“I am aware about my new PubPeer record, and we are in process of retrieving the original data. At this stage I cannot make any comment, however as soon I will get all information I will respond.“

No further comments so far, neither by email nor on PubPeer, neither by Girnita nor by Larsson. But then again the Swedish central authority, the National Board for Assessment of Research Misconduct (NPOF), informed me:

“We are at the moment looking into this emal and the emails we have received from Clare Francis to find out if this shall be handed as one noticiation/case or several.“

While NPOF is investigating, let’s look at a very recent paper by Girnita, featuring his wife Ada, his former mentor Calin, and a bunch of others.

A KI study in @CR_AACR has found that an anti-depressant drug may halt growth of childhood sarcoma, at least in mice and lab cells. The findings ignite hope of novel treatment strategies against this disease. @caitrincrudden @GeorgeACalin1 #ChildhoodCancer https://t.co/BwqH1vuR0K pic.twitter.com/lhRCKwRd8g

— Karolinska Institutet (@karolinskainst) November 6, 2020

Caitrin Crudden, Takashi Shibano, Dawei Song , Mihnea P. Dragomir , Sonia Cismas, Julianna Serly, Daniela Nedelcu, Enrique Fuentes-Mattei , Andrei Tica , George A. Calin , Ada Girnita, Leonard Girnita Inhibition of G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 2 Promotes Unbiased Downregulation of IGF1 Receptor and Restrains Malignant Cell Growth Cancer Research (2021) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-20-1662 

In November 2020, KI issued a press release that their scientists found a cure for childhood leukaemia:

“A new study has found that a commonly prescribed anti-depressant may halt growth of a type of cancer known as childhood sarcoma, at least in mice and laboratory cell experiments.” […]

“We have developed a novel strategy to control the activity of these tumour-driving receptors by striking the GPCRs,” says Leonard Girnita, researcher in the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, and principle investigator of the study. “To our knowledge this represents a new paradigm for the entire class of cancer-relevant RTKs and could be used as a starting point for the rational design of specific therapeutics in virtually any pathological conditions.”

And here is what was wrong with that paper:

What would you call scientists who use rigged research data to issue promises of cures to vulnerable parents of cancer-stricken children? But wait, all is fine, because the first author Caitrin Crudden (last listed as postdoc at VU Amsterdam in the Netherlands) wrote to me:

“I do not currently work at the VU. I am aware of the recent PubPeer comment pertaining to my work, and have been in contact with the responsible journal editor at Cancer Research. Having now provided all necessary raw data and experimental evidence, as it currently stands the editor is satisfied that duplications in this instance were genuine mistakes and neither change any conclusions reported in the original paper, nor misrepresent true data.“

I don’t know which editor Crudden spoke to, but there are several known cheaters on Cancer Research‘s editorial board. One of the senior editors is Calin, surely a conflict of interests? One of advisory chief editors is Bert Vogelstein whom you met before (read about his science and his attitude here).

Another advisory chief editor is Karen Vousden (read about her questionable science here).

The Crooks of CRUK

Paul B Fisher is Editor for “Breaking Insights“, and you can have breaking insights into his science here.

Fraud Simple

And the deputy editor for “Controversy and Consensus” is none other but Calin’s fraud-peddling collaborator at MD Anderson, Raghu Kalluri, how very funny.

Melo and Kalluri defend discredited Nature paper with preprint, where they admit data “adjustments”

These people want to make us think Crudden et al are saving the lives of children with leukamia. And I can take any bet that this very recent Oncogene paper by Girnitas and Crudden won’t be retracted either:

Dawei Song, Sonia Cismas, Caitrin Crudden, Eric Trocme , Claire Worrall, Naida Suleymanova, Tingting Lin , Huiyuan Zheng, Stefan Seregard, Ada Girnita, Leonard Girnita IGF-1R is a molecular determinant for response to p53 reactivation therapy in conjunctival melanoma Oncogene (2022) doi: 10.1038/s41388-021-02111-x 

Here, Crudden remained silent, also Seregard didn’t reply. Which is a pity because they discovered a cure for yet another eye melanoma, surely the Photoshop fraud did not affect any conclusions there? Of course it didn’t.

The Editor-in-Chief of Oncogene was, is, and will always be Justin Stebbing, who not only was forced to retract his own fake science, but sanctioned last year for scamming terminally ill cancer patients.

Oncogene EiC Justin Stebbing, a hypocrite of research integrity?

While you think of expletives to describe these cancer researchers, here more by Girnita, together with his own former PhD supervisor Larsson, incidentally also in Oncogene:

Yuntao Xie , Maria Törnkvist , Yan Aalto , Gunnar Nilsson, Leonard Girnita , Bálint Nagy , Sakari Knuutila, Olle Larsson Gene expression profile by blocking the SYT-SSX fusion gene in synovial sarcoma cells. Identification of XRCC4 as a putative SYT-SSX target gene Oncogene (2003) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1207153 

More in Oncogene, remember the Vasilcanu couple?

R Vasilcanu , D Vasilcanu , L Rosengren , N Natalishvili , B Sehat , S Yin , A Girnita , M Axelson , L Girnita , O Larsson Picropodophyllin induces downregulation of the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor: potential mechanistic involvement of Mdm2 and beta-arrestin1 Oncogene (2008) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1210797 

Or in Cancer Research, where no conclusion will be ever found to be affected:

Bita Sehat , Sandra Andersson , Leonard Girnita , Olle Larsson Identification of c-Cbl as a new ligase for insulin-like growth factor-I receptor with distinct roles from Mdm2 in receptor ubiquitination and endocytosis Cancer Research (2008) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-07-6364

The last author and Girnita’s Phd mentee Bita Sehat (whose name you saw on several papers discussed above) is now a biotech investor. To be fair, one can indeed make the biggest money with fake science if you sell fast enough.

Speaking of biotechs. Larsson’s and Axelson’s company Axelar tanked because their IGF-1 inhibitor AXL1717 didn’t work, as they had to admit after five phase 1 clinical trials (one of those in Belarus!) and a failed phase 2 clinical trial in 2013:

“The final data showed no statistically significant difference in rate of progression-free survival (PFS) between the patients treated with AXL1717 compared with the group treated with docetaxel, which confirms the previously communicated preliminary data.”

The €13.7 million Axelar raised (much of it from KI) went up in a puff of smoke. All that Photoshop fraud didn’t help, who would have known.

Maybe Girnita will now fall where Croce and Calin kept standing. I will update you about the NPOF investigation.

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