Science and the media can make for a volatile mix, and nobody knows this better than Dr Arpad Pusztai. He appeared on ITN's World in Action programme last August to discuss his research into genetically modified foods, hoping to win new research funding, but two days afterwards he was suspended and he remains somewhat in limbo among the scientific community.
"I have landed up in no-man's land. It is not a comfortable place to be," stated the 68-year-old scientist, who for 36 years worked at the highly regarded Rowett Research Institute. He is a world expert in lectins and has published 276 papers and three books, so he is no newcomer to the ways of scientific publishing. Yet his appearance, which lasted for less than three minutes, has greatly disturbed the ordinarily calm scientific waters and continues to make waves on the GM technology front. "It was timed," he said. "It was 150 seconds."
His now controversial work involved feeding trials where rats were fed transgenic potatoes that included a gene coding for GNA lectin, a substance known to be toxic to insects. The GNA lectin was not expected to affect the rats, he said, but his data set apparently showed that those receiving GM potato experienced stunted organ and brain growth and disturbance to the immune system, compared to controls and to rats fed non-GM GNA lectin.
He thought he and his colleagues, including his wife Dr Susan Bardocz, who headed the research group, had made quite a significant discovery. "Unfortunately, we became famous but for the wrong reasons."
His work was audited twice by the Rowett and criticised by its internal review group. And in an unprecedented move the Royal Society also decided to appoint six unnamed peers to review his research. About 10 days ago the society decided no conclusions could be drawn from his work. Yet another report, from the UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, also dismissed the research.
Dr Pusztai, however, remains determined to battle his way back and regain his credibility. He has no doubts whatsoever about the quality of his data. "I stand by them. There is not the slightest suspicion in my mind that they are incorrect," he said.
The Royal Society review pointed to flaws in the experimental regime used, but Dr Pusztai pointed out the original research proposal had itself been peer reviewed by the British Biotechnology Science Research Council. It had been selected from among 27 proposals in a fair competition and received funding worth £1.6 million from the Scottish Office.
The research described on the World in Action programme had not been submitted for review and publication. "We said that they were preliminary experiments," he said, but that did not mean that they were "inferior".
Fellow scientists have criticised him for departing from the accepted procedures associated with the release of scientific data, most recently last week in Dublin. He addressed the 13th Inaugural Lecture hosted by UCD's Biochemical Society on the subject, "Genetic modification of food: the way forward?" The reply was delivered by Prof David McConnell, head of the department of genetics at Trinity College Dublin.
He was also criticised for reading too much into the research, although he said others read things into the research on his behalf. "The only thing I said was I felt concerned. That was with a view to more experiments," Dr Pusztai said. He had hoped that the findings would help win more funding so that the research could be continued. Another two years' work and they would have been able to come to much clearer conclusions, he added.
In the programme he suggested the "construct" could have been a cause for the changes in the rats. This is the combination of genetic engineering components including the gene, its promoter "switch", a marker gene to confirm insertion and a viral element or some other way of getting these parts delivered into the plant.
The lectin form used in the experiments had been shown to have no effect on rats, he said. He knew of no reason for the changes unless the construct was causing them. "For some reason or other the construct or the positional effect [in the genome] causes changes in the gut and immune effects that have secondary effects on the body."
He said he was worried about the rapid release of GM products. "They are using the same methodology to produce the GM potatoes as other GM products."
Although his methodology has been criticised, his data remain to be answered. It certainly shows that changes took place in the rats for whatever reason, although more work would have to be done to confirm that the construct had a part to play in this.