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Paolo Macchiarini is a renowned stem cell scientist and has denied all allegations made against him
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Two judges have been asked to leave a
panel that picks the Nobel prize for medicine in a scandal surrounding a
disgraced Italian transplant surgeon.
The decision to drop
Harriet Wallberg and Anders Hamsten came after the Swedish government
sacked the entire board of the prestigious Karolinska Institute, where
the scientist worked.
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The scandal has come as a blow to Sweden's biggest medical research centre
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Paolo Macchiarini was seen as a leading specialist on windpipe transplants. But two of his patients died and he was accused of falsifying his work record.
Dr Macchiarini denies all the charges against him. The
two judges who lost their positions on the Nobel panel have both served
as heads of the Karolinska Institute, and were among several
individuals suspected of ignoring warnings about the Italian windpipe
scientist.
The case has come as a severe blow to the institute.
In a report on the case on Monday,
a former Swedish judge said he had "never seen such negative
references" and questioned why the surgeon had been initially hired and
then had his contract extended.