Three Chinese researchers have been fired from their positions after they co-published a study in which 24 schoolchildren in China’s Hunan province were fed genetically modified (GM) rice in 2008, Chinese authorities announced last month (6 December).
Yin Shi’an from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wang Yin from the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences and Hu Yuming from the provincial CDC in Hunan lost their jobs for “violating regulations, scientific ethics and academic integrity”, according to a statement released by the CDC.
The three co-authored a paper together with Guangwen Tang, a researcher in a nutrition lab at Tufts University, that was published online on 1 August in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and that used data from the controversial trial.
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The study looked at ‘golden rice’ — a GM rice strain that contains higher levels of beta-carotene, a precursor for vitamin A — and found that the beta-carotene in the rice is as effective as pure beta-carotene in oil and better than that in spinach at providing vitamin A to children.
View the original article here: Golden rice trial triggers sackings, investigation
