The intention

In his PhD research, Paul Koenen tried to determine how a component of HIV leads to activation of the immune system (T-cel) leads. One of the proteins that make up HIV, called Nef, prevents the immune system from properly detecting that a T cell is infected with HIV. This gives the virus extra time to replicate itself before the cell is destroyed by the immune system. Furthermore, it became known that Nef manipulates the signal of the TCR. By manipulating this signal, Nef can stimulate the activation of T cells, making it easier for the virus to multiply. Whether manipulating Nef on this TCR signal actually activates T cells was not clear, so the research team wanted to investigate this phenomenon further..

The approach

For this research, a mouse model was developed in which the HIV component should be expressed in the cells of the immune system (T cells). Unfortunately, the HIV component was not expressed properly, making it unclear why no effects were seen in the cells of the immune system. Was this because the HIV component had no effect on the TCR signal or because the HIV component was present in too low a concentration? This negative result could not be published, putting the whole promotion in jeopardy.

The result

Negative findings in medical research should be shared among scientists to prevent different people in different places from making the same mistake. Leading research journals publish very few negative research results. This has negative consequences for individual researchers, but also for the entire field of research, because knowledge and resources are unnecessarily wasted.

The lessons

Recommendations: Perhaps the hypothesis and methodology should be leading for publication. If these are well substantiated and the research is good (according to applicable scientific standards) performed then the result is relevant, regardless of the outcome.

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