Duke's Potti Resigns; Some Kind of Forgiveness Annoyingly Requested

Specifics are lacking, but geneticist and physician Anil Potti now takes "full responsibility for a series of anomalies in data handling, analysis and management that have come under scrutiny in the past months." Potti's mea culpa and resignation from Duke University is delivered by way of Hunt Willard, director of the university's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, through today's Duke Chronicle (what I remember as being a-not-so-terrible college newspaper).

In Friday's e-mail to the IGSP staff, Willard asked faculty members to "remember, especially at this time of year, all that Anil has done to positively influence the lives of many of his colleagues, trainees, friends and patients. The loss of any member of our family is difficult, and I ask you to keep that in your thoughts today." It's an overly gracious good-will sentiment generally and an insulting slap specifically to those researchers whose professional lives have been tarnished by proxy—not to mention the hopeful cancer patients who enrolled in clinical trials that were based on Potti's dubious work.

Potti had been on administrative leave from Duke since July, shortly after The Cancer Letter charged that he had seriously fudged his resume by falsely claiming to be a Rhodes scholar or "finalist." More important, Potti was facing allegations of research misconduct on the basis of a 2009 examination of his work by M. D. Anderson biostatisticians. Back-and-forth external and internal investigations ultimately led to the termination of several clinical trials, on which Potti's work was based, and the retraction of several published articles. The most recent literary casualty is a report cowritten by Potti that was published in Nature Medicine, reveals The Great Beyond Blog (presumably this article, published in 2006).

For its part in the Potti scandal, the Duke leadership (ie, President Richard Brodhead) has received sharp criticism from the blogging team (at least I think they're a team) at Duke.Fact.Checker ("Inside the Potti Mess: A Fact Checker Special Report"). The excoriation:

We do not find that Uncle Dick has taken any profile at all, that is to say exhibited any leadership. In particular, he has not expressed appropriate concern for the patients.

His only important comment came just after The Cancer Letter reported Potti's fake claim of a Rhodes Scholarship and the Rhodes Trust confirmed there was no award. With other credential issues looming at the time, Brodhead cautioned the editorial board of the [Durham] Herald-Sun not to reach rapid conclusions of truth or lie, for there could also be "intermediate explanation."

Pathetic. Dick, just pathetic. 

Photo of Anil Potti, formerly from the ISGP web site.