NEWSBRIEF: The Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, NV, has managed to keep a 5-year, $1.5-million U.S. government grant in spite of firing the principal researcher named on the grant.
WPI fired Judy Mikovits in late 2011 after the institute's high-profile paper linked XMRV to chronic fatigue syndrome was retracted by the journal Science. WPI has said the firing was not related to the retraction.
According to ScienceInsider, Representatives of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is a division of NIH, visited WPI and determined that Vincent Lombardi had the expertise to replace Mikovitz as the principal investigator. Lombardi was the co-author of the XMRV study.
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Frankly I’m surprised that the grant didn’t go with Mikovitz, especially since the FBI is now investigating the Whittemore’s financial dealings.