Mutant waste dumped down school drain
Fri, April 18 2008
The sloppy management of the laboratory of Prof. Takayoshi Kuno, which specializes in molecular pharmacology and pharmacogenomics, was revealed by several people close to the laboratory.
According to Japan's Daily Yomiuri newspaper, Kuno was aware researchers used illegal disposal methods, and tried to conceal them when Education, Science and Technology Ministry officials inspected the laboratory.
The university began questioning researchers at the laboratory over the issue on the same day. The ministry, which received an anonymous tip on the issue on March 17, instructed the graduate school to immediately investigate the case. The professor, however, denied giving tacit approval or covering up the practices. The researchers failed to use sterilization techniques to kill the genetically modified colon bacillus and yeast cultures, as is required
by law, and instead discarded them into a sink. The research had involved analyzing the cultures' carcinogenic properties.
Furthermore, laboratory staff reportedly threw agar-formed culturesinto receptacles meant for domestic waste. Such practices have reportedly been going on for at least five years, and sometimes by direct order of the professor, according to the paper's sources.
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