The prolonged saga of Judy Mikovits, the lead researcher who tied a mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (SFC), yet another dizzying round decision.
Just over one month after the shooting Mikovits, the Whittemore Peterson for Disease Neuro-Immune Institute (WPI) 4 November filed a lawsuit against his former director of research. According to WPI after Mikovits ended September 29, she mistakenly removed notebooks laboratory and kept other proprietary information on her laptop and flash drives and personal e-mail account. WPI, a nonprofit organization that is based on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, also won a temporary injunction prohibiting Mikovits to "destroy, remove or alter" one of the files or data related.
Mikovits lawyer, Lois Hart, said that his client can not talk to the media about the case, but strongly denies any wrongdoing. in an e-mail to Science Insider, Hart stressed that "the integrity of Dr. Mikovits goes to the bone."
Hart refuted the charges against his client in a letter on November 4 at WPI lawyer who appeared on the CFS-related websites. (Hart said she did not release the letter, but checked its contents Science Insider.) "All allegations of theft, embezzlement, data source and various intellectual property, and articles are incorrect and misleading, "Hart wrote.
the complaint filed by WPI focuses on laboratory notebooks kept by Mikovits and his assistants, which she stored in a locked drawer. WPI was a representative of the company that manufactured the desktop to open the drawer after his shot and the statements of complaint and found that "Cahiers were absent." The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets, says "Mikovits had the only key to the locked drawer in his office."
The Hart rebuttal letter to the lawyer argues that WPI Mikovits was not in his office when she received the phone call that told him she was arrested and she returned never at the institute. "A number of people have keys to the office and laboratory, including administrative staff, laboratory staff and the guard," wrote Hart. "The concern of your customer as to the location of these laptops, and intellectual property should be directed elsewhere. "
Mikovits worked for WPI since its creation in 07. Created by Annette and Harvey Whittemore, whose daughter CFS, the institute also studies fibromyalgia after Lyme disease and Gulf War illness. The data Mikovits "absconded with," WPI alleged in court documents, could harm future efforts of the Institute. "Without these materials, WPI's ability to continue its important research to find a cure for this terrible disease affecting more than 4 million Americans each year is severely hampered," the complaint states. It argues that the information and invention that Mikovits Proprietary Agreement signed stipulates that WPI possessed the books she and others created in the laboratory.
Robert Charrow, a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig in Washington, DC, who specializes in cases involving scientific research, says academia and industry have different standards about retaining their researchers own portable computers and data. Although Charrow stresses he does not know the details of this case, he said the industry generally prohibits researchers to take data with them. "In academic institutions, researchers are requested or required to provide a copy of their equipment and data to the institution, and they can keep a copy for themselves," says Charrow. "This is how it is usually done and that is why there are no more pee games."
Mikovits and colleagues made the following international headlines online publication Science October 8, 09, an article in which they stated that they found a recently discovered retrovirus dubbed XMRV mouse in the blood of 67% of CFS patients they examined. Several subsequent studies, including one that participated in WPI, could not replicate the finding. a separate study, also published in Science provided evidence that XMRV was accidentally created in a laboratory experiment with mice and questioned whether it even infected humans. Science 's editor in chief Bruce Alberts published a concern Editorial expression about the veracity of the document May 31 Science later published a partial withdrawal of the original group paper Mikovits after a laboratory that contributed to mean a contaminant ruined results.
Second Judicial District Court of Nevada will hear a preliminary injunction against Mikovits November 22.
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