The DeLuca case

"Patent Clash," the cover story by news editor Bill Lueders, reports on allegations of fraud and misrepresentation leveled against the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation by the Massachusetts-based Research Institute of Medicine and Chemistry. A high-stakes federal lawsuit centered on three WARF patents derived from the work of UW scientists including Dr. Hector DeLuca, one of the world's leading vitamin D researchers. RIMAC claimed that "WARF and its agents have engaged in multiple acts of misrepresentation of scientific research and misappropriation of the scientific work of others." The case generated some 70,000 pages of documentation and 70 sworn depositions by people in 12 states and 10 foreign countries before being settled out of court, with WARF paying an undisclosed sum. DeLuca and others maintain their innocence, with DeLuca telling Isthmus: "We were just sort of bloodied bystanders as we stood there and heard all these accusations against us." The allegations would lead to misconduct probes by both the UW and federal authorities that Lueders would report on over the next five years; in the end, DeLuca and other scientists were exonerated. DeLuca remains on the UW biochemistry faculty as Harry Steenbock Research Professor, and is the founder and CEO of Madison-based Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals.