The S.K.I. Affair (Contd.)

Four years ago, Dr. William Summerlin, then a clinical researcher at Stanford University, startled the scientific world by reporting that he had discovered a way to avoid the reaction that has resulted in the failure of so many transplant operations: the tendency of the body's immune system to destroy foreign tissue. But other scientists were unable to repeat Summerlin's experiments, and skepticism about his results grew steadily. Earlier this spring Summerlin, who had since moved to New York City's Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, was accused by colleagues of painting the skin of some laboratory mice to make it appear that he had successfully grafted tissue from one animal to another. He was suspended while a specially appointed S.K.I. committee investigated the charges. Last week, describing Summerlin's conduct as "irresponsible" and "incompatible with discharge of his responsibilities in the scientific community," the committee upheld the accusations and fired Summerlin.

The skin transplants on mice were not the only Summerlin experiments that were repudiated. Summerlin had claimed on several occasions that he had grafted skin from one human to another unrelated one, implanted human corneas in rabbits, and transplanted adrenal and parathyroid glands from animal to animal. But after appearing before the committee for a total of eight hours, Summerlin--in addition to admitting that he had used a pen to touch up the mice--conceded that no successful corneal grafts had occurred. The committee found that the results of his gland transplants were at best equivocal.

The committee also cast doubts on some of his other work. It discovered that a mouse Summerlin brought with him when he went to S.K.I, as an example of a successful graft was a hybrid rather than inbred species as he had claimed. Thus it was genetically compatible with the animal whose skin it had received, and the fact that the graft took was somewhat less than remarkable. The committee also raised questions about Summerlin's interpretation of some of his earliest attempts to transplant skin between humans. In three of five patients Summerlin treated, the graft has since been rejected; in the two others, it appears too early to tell if the new tissue will take.

Self-Deception. The committee's report suggests that Summerlin's actions "involved at least some measure of self-deception, or some other aberration, which hindered him from adequately gauging the import and eventual results of his conduct." Dr. Lewis Thomas, president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, concurs. After meeting with Summerlin, his wife and a psychiatrist, Thomas agreed that the researcher was suffering from a "serious emotional disturbance."

As a result of the findings, Summerlin has been given a one-year medical leave at full salary but will not be allowed to return to S.K.I. The institute's director, Immunologist Robert Good (TIME cover, March 19, 1973), received a mild reprimand. Good hired Summerlin at the University of Minnesota and brought the researcher with him when he moved to S.K.I. last year. He was the co-author of several of Summerlin's papers. The committee found that Good did not knowingly misrepresent his colleague's work, but it did imply that he should have exercised closer control --especially after November 1973, when he began to suspect the validity of Summerlin's work.

Good accepted the committee's admonition and said that his experience would result in S.K.I.'s giving closer scrutiny to any researcher's claims. After S.K.I.'s traumatic experience, the same will probably be true at research institutions around the world.

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