Harvard Spokesman reiterates: Moriguchi did not have Harvard IRB approval

iPS cell transplant Moriguchi
Hisashi Moriguchi.

Hisashi Moriguchi had a poster up at the NY Stem Cell Meeting yesterday and has done interviews with Japanese media saying that he has led a team that transplanted iPS cells into human patients. Reportedly his poster said and the newspaper articles have stated that the iPS cell transplant work had IRB approval from Harvard Medical Medical School/MGH.

Two papers of his published this year also state that the work done in those publications also had Harvard Med School IRB approval.

I directly asked a Harvard spokesperson about this, who referred me to their earlier statement regarding Moriguchi’s poster and said it also applies to the two 2012 papers and to the IRB issue:

“Hisashi Moriguchi was a visiting fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1999-2000, and has not been associated with MGH or Harvard since that time. No clinical trials related to Dr. Moriguchi’s work have been approved by institutional review boards at either Harvard University or MGH.”

The spokesperson indicated that there is no record of Moriguchi having any kind of IRB approval of any kind at Harvard.

3 thoughts on “Harvard Spokesman reiterates: Moriguchi did not have Harvard IRB approval”

  1. The only designation of Mr. Moriuchi’s educational background that I found was in a letter to the editor where he lists himself as M.P.H. Unless he has finished a medical degree or Ph.D. since 2004 (which is quite possible), he should be addressed as Mr. Moriuchi and not Dr. Moriuchi as the Harvard spokesperson addressed him.

    N Engl J Med 2004; 351:831-832August 19, 2004
    To the Editor:

    A recent meta-analysis has confirmed a close correlation between the number of mutations in an interferon-sensitivity–determining region (ISDR) of the HCV protein NS5A (2209–2248) and the outcome of interferon monotherapy for hepatitis C virus type 1b infection worldwide.1 This phenomenon has also been confirmed in our study in the case of therapy with standard or pegylated interferon plus ribavirin.2 However, the geographic distribution of ISDR mutations is reportedly different.1 For example, isolates obtained in Japan have significantly more mutations in the ISDR than isolates from Northern Europe (Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Sweden; P=0.004).1 Therefore, the differences in the response rate between blacks and non-Hispanic whites given pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for HCV type 1b infection, as reported by Muir et al., may be explained by the distribution of the number of ISDR mutations among these populations.

    Hisashi Moriguchi, M.P.H.
    University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan
    hisashi@ip.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp

    Chifumi Sato, M.D.
    Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan

  2. Which is a liar?
    I found this patent (Inventors: Hisashi Moriguchi, Raymond T. Chung
    Original Assignee: THE GENERAL HOSPITAL CORPORATION)
    , but MGH said, “and has not been associated with MGH or Harvard since that time.”

  3. I found this paper published November 2009 in Hepatology by a Hisashi Moriguchi cited as having the following affiliations:

    1. Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    2. Gastrointestinal Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

    3. Department of Analytical Health Science, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.23418/full

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