Swedish university fires stem cell scientist over negligence

In this photo taken on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, provided by Florida State University, Professor Hengli Tang confers with his graduate student and co-author Sarah Ogden about the next steps in their Zika virus research in Tangs lab at FSU, in Tallahassee, Fla. Tang is a lead author of a lab study that found the Zika virus infects embryonic cells that help form the brain, adding to evidence that Zika causes a serious birth defect. The new work provides experimental evidence that once the virus reaches the developing brain, it can infect and harm cells that are key for further brain development, said Tang. (FSU Photography Services/Florida State University via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Sweden’s Karolinska University says it has fired Italian stem cell scientist Paolo Macchiarini, whose work was once considered revolutionary but has since been deemed to have breached medical ethics.

In a statement on Wednesday, Karolinska said Macchiarini was to be informed immediately that his contract has been rescinded. The university said Macchiarini was being fired for reasons including falsifying his CV and scientific negligence.

Karolinska said Macchiarini had “acted in a way that has had very tragic consequences for the people affected and their families.”

Macchiarini was part of the team that conducted the world’s first transplant using a windpipe partly made from a patient’s own stem cells in 2008.

Earlier this year, a Swedish documentary raised ethical concerns about his work, which Karolinska described as “truly alarming.”