Eliezer Masliah (born ) is a

neuropathologist Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the cli ...

who was the director of the division of neuroscience at the

National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand ...

from 2016 to 2024. In September 2024, an investigation exposed image manipulation across 132 of Masliah's research papers, raising concerns about data integrity in studies influencing

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

and

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

treatments, pharmaceutical patents, and clinical trials. As of March 2025 he has 4 retractions.

Background

He received his medical degree in 1982 from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

. After postdoctoral training at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

(UCSD) he became a tenure-track Professor at UCSD's Department of Neuroscience, with a joint appointment in Pathology. He also directed the neuropathology core of the Shirley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UCSD. He was appointed head of the U.S.

's Division of Neuroscience in 2016. He has a prolific body of work — over 800 research papers, much of which is now under scrutiny for containing manipulated images to support different conclusions than the real data.https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/fraud-so-much-fraud In September 2024, the NIH released a statement that stated he was no longer serving in the role of Director of the Division of Neuroscience.

Research misconduct

In September 2024, Masliah's work came under intense scrutiny when an investigation led by the journal ''Science'' exposed extensive image manipulation across 132 of his published research papers. A 286 page dossier compiled by forensic analysts and neuroscientists pointed to repeated instances of

Western blot The western blot (sometimes called the protein immunoblot), or western blotting, is a widely used analytical technique in molecular biology and immunogenetics to detect specific proteins in a sample of tissue homogenate or extract. Besides detect ...

manipulation, image reuse, and other forms of digital editing across decades of his research. These allegations involved crucial studies related to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, particularly surrounding the

alpha-synuclein Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SNCA'' gene. It is a neuronal protein involved in the regulation of synaptic vesicle trafficking and the release of neurotransmitters. Alpha-synuclein is abundant in the brai ...

protein. The dossier was sent to the HHS Office of Research Integrity, which requested that the National Institute on Aging (NIA) start a research misconduct investigation in May 2023. The NIA started their investigation in December 2023. In September 2024, the NIH confirmed that Masliah was no longer leading the Division of Neuroscience at the NIA, following the conclusion of their investigation. The controversy includes papers that have influenced clinical trials and investment decisions in the pharmaceutical industry. 238 active patents cite papers by Masliah that contain anomalous images and data. A notable impact on the pharmaceutical industry concerns the experimental Parkinson's drug

prasinezumab Prasinezumab (, ; developmental code names NEOD002, PRX-002, RG-7935, RO-7046015) is an anti-α-synuclein drug acting as a monoclonal antibody against α-synuclein which is under development for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. No signifi ...

, developed by Prothena Biosciences in collaboration with Roche. A Phase II study reported in August 2022 found no statistically significant effect from the drug vs placebo on measures of Parkinson's disease progression. Several papers foundational to the development of prasinezumab were flagged for image manipulation. According to Google patent search, Masliah's name appears on 28 patents, including several patents filed by Prothena Biosciences, as well as earlier patents filed in conjunction with UCSD for drugs that target synucleopathies. Research trials on the drugs

cerebrolysin Cerebrolysin (developmental code name FPF-1070) is an experimental mixture of enzymatically-treated peptides derived from pig brain whose constituents can include brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic fact ...

and

minzasolmin Minzasolmin (development names DLX313 and UCB0599) is an experimental small-molecule drug in development for Parkinson's disease that is designed to prevent misfolding of α-synuclein. See also * Anti-α-synuclein drug An anti-α-synuclein drug ...

were also found to be based on questionable data from Masliah's lab. Masliah co-authored 21 papers on the pig brain extract cerebrolysin, eight of which have been discovered to have issues.Yang, Mu. "Cerebrolysin: Sharmas, Masliah, and EVER Pharma" Cerebrolysin is marketed as containing "neurotrophic peptides" but researchers using high performance liquid chromatography found that it does not contain peptides, and is largely composed of amino acids and salt, with some trace protein fragments. Some of the fraudulent papers on cerebrolysin co-authored by Masliah appear to have been quite influential in boosting interest in cerebrolysin, which is used today in countries like Russia to treat stroke, dementia, and other conditions. Masliah received funding for many of his cerebrolysin studies from the maker of cerebrolysin, EVER Pharma, and collaborated with Herbert Moessler, former general manager at EVER Pharma, who incidentally has 19 of his own papers flagged for anomalies. Moessler and Masliah started a company, Neuropore, to investigate the drug minzasolmin in 2008. A phase II clinical trial on minzasolmin involving 496 people is currently ongoing and is scheduled to finish in late 2024. Masliah has not publicly commented on these findings. As of November 2024 he is not listed as part of the National Institute on Aging's staff on their website, although as of November 2024 his name still appeared in NIH's Network Enterprise Directory, suggesting he is still an NIH employee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masliah, Eliezer Living people American neuroscientists 1950s births People involved in scientific misconduct incidents Neuropathologists Alzheimer's disease researchers