Title: The Wild West of Animal Experimentation
Author: Matthew Wroblewski and Tristan McIntosh
Description: A principle investigator discovers that her coinvestigator has violated the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocol.
Keyword(s): Animal Subjects Research, Protocol Violation
Based On: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/references/laba02v31n5.htm
Case: Dr. Wen, a co-investigator on Dr. Maria’s IACUC protocol, thought that Dr. Maria had amended the IACUC protocol to include a 4th experimental group. Dr. Wen had taken ten adult rats and, operating under what he thought was Dr. Maria’s IACUC-approved protocol, fed them a plant-based diet. He then began to weigh the rats and take their blood pressure twice a week. This continued for six weeks until Dr. Wen had collected all of the data. Dr. Wen mentioned his results to Dr. Maria who then asked him about whether or not he received IACUC approval for the additional experimental group. Both researchers then realized that the 4th experimental group was not IACUC-approved. Dr. Maria is concerned that reporting a protocol violation could affect her funding efforts going forward.
- What should Dr. Wen and Dr. Maria do next in this situation?
- What are the possible repercussions of this breach in protocol?
- What could have been done differently?