Poles apart: Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim in row over who helped man walk

A bitter stoush has erupted over the contribution made by the Australian of the Year to a spinal damage breakthrough.

Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim. Picture: Kym Smith

A bitter stoush over the contribution made by Australian of the Year Alan Mackay-Sim to a spinal damage breakthrough, compared to “landing man on the moon”, has erupted, with a Polish professor saying the acclaimed Queensland scientist was not involved “in any way”.

The National Australia Day Council, deciding to honour Eme­ritus Professor Mackay-Sim over other state and territory nominations, said “in 2014, Alan’s research helped play a central role in the world’s first successful restoration of mobility in a quadriplegic man’’.

The claim, based on Professor Mackay-Sim’s having conducted the first clinical trial of taking olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from the nose and injecting them into the spinal cord, has been repeated by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and others.

Professor Mackay-Sim, who retired recently, served for a decade as director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell ­Research at Griffith University and is highly regarded in the field.

But Pawel Tabakow, the doctor who did the pioneering surgery on Polish mechanic and fireman ­Dariusz Fidyka, said Professor Mackay­-Sim’s work had nothing to do with the research that underscored the surgery on Mr Fidyka, nor his rehabilitation.

“Professor Mackay-Sim has not been involved in any way; he has not contributed any ideas or supported the research in any way,” Associate Professor Tabakow told The Weekend Australian, adding although the Queenslander’s work may have been “valuable”, it relied on a different technique and was unsuccessful.

“His involvement is zero per cent; we are very frustrated by these claims that he co-operated with the British scientists (who worked with the Polish team). It is not our business who should be the Australian of the Year, but it is our business when his work is being linked to the surgery of Fidyka. He has no link whatsoever.’’

Associate Professor Tabakow said the earlier cell work of Professor Mackay-Sim was based on the nose and using purified cells, which had not worked, while his team’s work was based on the olfactory bulb and fibroblasts with a mixed culture. “We also used grafts of peripheral nerves for spinal cord reconstruction in difference to his approach,” he said. ‘’It is like pretending, as a foreign person, to be part of the family.”

The Weekend Australian travelled to Poland to find Mr Fidyka after the Australia Day Council promoted the “central role” Professor Mackay-Sim had played.

The criticism prompted the Australia Day Council and Griffith University yesterday to play down his direct contribution to the Fidyka case while still lauding his career achievements.

Associate Professor Tabakow’s research colleague, Geoff Raisman of University College London, could not be contacted yesterday. He has repeatedly declared the breakthrough to be the scientific equivalent of man walking on the moon, although other experts in the hotly contested field have been more cautious and question if it can be repeated.

Professor Mackay-Sim, 65, has spoken previously of his dealings with Professor Raisman, although this week he described the moon landing comparison as “a little bit of hyperbole”.

“That was a little bit of hyperbole from somebody on a Polish team who took cells out of the nose, grew them in a dish and put them into the injured spinal cord, and they had a guy who had a paraplegic spinal cord injury and he now walks,” he told The Weekend Australian on Wednesday night. “We did a clinical trial prior to that showing that it was a safe procedure to do.”

Professor Mackay-Sim did not return calls yesterday. A spokeswoman for the National Australia Day Council acknowledged “confusion in some media reports”.

GRAPHIC: What they said

Despite the council saying his research “helped play a central role” in the Fidyka case, she argued the council had said only “that his work was central in establishing the field which has led to the project’s outcome”.

Two research papers on the Fidyka operation, also known as the “Wroclaw walk-again project”, also cited Professor Mackay-Sim’s work. In the journal Cell Transplantation in 2014, Associate Professor Tabakow, Professor Rais­man and colleagues wrote that the only completed phase-one clinical study involving OECs (that headed by Professor Mackay-Sim) “did not show any efficacy”, which has also been interpreted as having demonstrated no safety concerns.

A Griffith University spokeswoman said the institution was “perplexed” by Associate Professor Tabakow’s comments.

Despite the university having declared Professor Mackay-Sim’s research “instrumental in helping a paralysed man walk again”, she said “there is no record from Griffith University or Alan himself claiming to have being directly responsible for the outcome achieved on the Polish patient in 2014”.

The university spokeswoman pointed to a report in The Australian in 2014 on the collaboration between Professor Raisman and Professor Mackay-Sim and suggested journalists may have misinterpreted his contribution.

“It is without dispute that Professor Alan Mackay-Sim’s clinical trials in 2002 paved the way for ongoing work that is being done around the world today in the study and development of stem cell transplantation.” she said.

Mr Fidyka, 43, was repeatedly stabbed in 2010, the knife severing his spinal cord, and left paralysed from the chest down.

He said he had no knowledge of Professor Mackay­-Sim but was grate­ful for the doctors, scientists and therapists who have revolutionised his life. He did seven hours rehabilitation a day and was shocked at his progress since the surgery.

“Each day it seems like a very, very small improvement, but then when I compare to a month ago I realise I have made a big improvement ... but the doctors are not sure how long it will last. But the physical and physiological tests show the improvement is real.”

Additional reporting: Sean Parnell