Árpád Pusztai

Árpád Pusztai ( born September 8, 1930 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian- British biochemist. Árpád Pusztai presented with his wife Susan Bardócz in feeding trials with genetically modified plants in rats, an impaired immune system and changes to the internal organs fixed. It sparked a lively controversy to the handling of genetically modified plants in agriculture. Pusztai's contract was not renewed in the sequence. For his courageous conduct in the matter to him in 2005 the Whistleblower Award of the Federation of German Scientists were awarded.

Academic Career

Árpád Pusztai graduated in Chemistry at the Eötvös Loránd University, from which he graduated in 1953. He then worked on, also based in Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences until he emigrated via a refugee camp in Austria to the UK because of the failure of the Hungarian uprising of 1956. There he earned a doctoral degree at the London Lister Institute.

From 1963 to 1999 he was at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, operates a formerly independent research institute that is part of the University of Aberdeen since 2008. In 1988 he was the Royal Society of Edinburgh appointed a "Fellow ".

Pusztai is considered one of the leading international expert on plant lectins and is the author of 270 scientific papers and three books on this subject.

Pusztai affair

In 1998, Pusztai results of investigations on television publicly known before the publication in the medical journal The Lancet was published in 1999. The ensuing debate over the validity of research results became known as Pusztai affair. Pusztai's employment contract was not renewed for breach of publication guidelines and the Rowett Research Institute joined him from participating in further investigations of.

Pusztai concluded from his studies that the consumption of genetically modified potatoes could cause damage to the immune system and altered organ growth in rats. His results were, after the great media attention due to the previous publication in the press, under investigation by the Rowett Institute on 22 October as part of an audit. As a result, the scientists came to the conclusion that the data of the experiment Pusztai not support a conclusion.

In addition, a group of 23 scientists examined under the direction of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth, including Professor Ian F. Pryme of the University of Bergen, independently of the investigation report of the Rowett Institute and Pusztai's experiments. In a memorandum thereupon demanded the scientists involved in the rehabilitation of public Pusztai. They confirmed that the assumption is justified, the consumption of genetically modified plants could also result in significant health effects by itself in mammals.

Several months later, also examined the Royal Society Pusztai's experiments. She came to the investigation by a number of anonymous independent investigators concluded that Pusztai's studies were methodologically useless. The study was poorly designed, leg hold uncertainties in the composition of the feed, use incorrect statistical methods and use a generally insufficient number of rats. The panel of the Royal Society lamented further that Pusztai had appealed directly to the public instead of letting the regular peer - review process run its course and expose themselves to scientific criticism. This would have informed and unbiased public debate more difficult.

Puztais results were published after controversy in The Lancet, 1999. The auditor of the Lancet were involved in the publication divided on whether the quality of the study. The final version published in the Lancet could see significant biological effects on animals fed with GM potatoes animals, effects on the immune system were not mentioned.

The case Pusztai was taken up by the series of the Centre for Technical and Economic Ethics and examined in the form of a case study on ethics in science by Dieter Deiseroth. The following questions are finally raised. On the one hand has remained unclear what the Rowett Institute and its clients has moved instead of supporting Pusztai in the controversy involved with science policy and economic interests and advance his research to abandon the research and urge Pusztai from the Institute. Also is questioned as to why this approach to the Royal Society and many colleagues - with the exception of 20 international scientists ( including the German Institute for Applied Ecology ) - did not cause a storm of protest. In the research on transgenic maize MON 863 and the controversies surrounding Gilles -Eric Séralini is directed and encouraged to identify possibly similar underlying structures of power and influence. Measures are called for, to ensure that dissent not in science becomes a personal existence risk for Scientist / inside the entering of professional ethical responsibility in the dissent.

Appreciation

• In 2005, Pusztai was awarded the whistleblower price of the Federation of German Scientists ( VDW).
• In December 2009, he was awarded, together with his wife Susan Bardócz the Stuttgart Peace Prize.

Filmography

• 2001: risk science ( documentation; Director: Gabriela Neuhaus / Angelo Scudeletti )
• 2010: Purchased truth - Genetic engineering in the magnetic field of money ( documentation; Director: Bertram Verhaag )
• 2010: Árpád Pusztai - Whistleblower ( documentation; Director: Bertram Verhaag )
• 2008: Monsanto, poison and genes ( documentation, directed by Marie -Monique Robin )

Credentials

Further reading

• Stanley Ewen, Arpad Pusztai, " Effect of diets Containing genetically modified potatoes expressing Galanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine ", The Lancet, October 16, 1999, 354 ( 9187 ): 1353 ( PMID 10533866 ), read on www.biotech info. net without log in
• Prof. Dr. Arpad Pusztai, Prof. Dr. Susan Bardócz, Jürgen Binder (ed.): Vulnerability genetic engineering. orange -press, 2009 (Original title: A genetikailag módosított növények és a belőlük készített élelmiszerek és takarmányok biztonsága, translated by Peter Schmidt), ISBN 978-3-936086-50-8, pp. 177 ( With DVD Árpád Pusztai, Whistleblower of DENKmal -Film GmbH, Munich. ).
• Dieter Deiseroth, Annegret Falter (ed.): Whistleblower in Genetic Engineering and weapons research. Award Ceremony 2005: Theodore A. Postol, Arpad Pusztai. VMW, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8305-1262-2.
• Jeffrey M. Smith: Trojan seeds. Genetically modified food - genetically engineered human. Afterword Christine von Weizsäcker. ( Original title: Seeds of Deception ) Publisher: Riemann, ISBN 978-3-570-50060-6
• L'affaire of pommes de terre transgéniques Étude d'une politique polémique scientifico - mediatico - Août 1998 - Octobre 1999 Mémoire présenté par Clément Deshayes sous la direction de Baudouin Jurdant ( Université Paris 7 - Denis Diderot ) ( fr.) called at 2 November 2011