Researchers analysed thousands of laboratory-made plasmids and discovered that nearly half of them had defects, raising questions of experimental reproducibility.
Are We Protecting Human Subjects?
The Commission also announced formation of a panel of international experts, which has been asked to review the adequacy of current human subjects’ protections in clinical trials around the world. The announcement was made in response to a request by President Obama in light of historian Susan Reverby’s shocking discovery that US officials had intentionally infected Guatemalans in the 1940s with syphilis and gonorrhea. Reverby’s diligent research has spawned renewed concern for human subjects’ protection, and the call for reassurance that current rules and norms “protect people from harm or unethical treatment domestically as well as internationally.”