女版乔布斯未脱丑闻 再惹风波

A prestigious scientific organisation has descended into infighting over a decision to invite Elizabeth Holmes, founder of blood-testing group Theranos, to deliver a presentation at its annual conference this week, with at least two members of the association threatening to resign.

一个久负盛名的科学组织陷入内讧，症结是邀请验血集团Theranos创始人伊丽莎白•霍姆斯(Elizabeth Holmes)在该组织本周举行的年会上发表演讲的决定。至少两名协会成员威胁要辞职。

The American Association for Clinical Chemistry invited Ms Holmes to deliver a 90-minute talk in front of 3,000 scientists on Monday night despite protests from some scientists responsible for organising the conference, who argued that a series of damaging scandals at Theranos should disqualify the company.

美国临床化学协会(American Association for Clinical Chemistry)邀请霍姆斯在周一晚向3000名科学家发表90分钟的演讲，尽管一些负责组织会议的科学家提出抗议，他们主张，Theranos爆出的一系列丑闻应当使该公司失去资格。

Ms Holmes had been expected to use the session to present scientific data in defence of her company’s proprietary blood-testing technology, including a tiny finger-prick vial or “nanotainer” that she claims can generate accurate test results without traditional needles or venous draws.

此前人们曾预计，霍姆斯将利用本次会议陈述相关科学数据，为她的公司专有的验血技术辩护，包括“Nanotainer”指尖采血小瓶子。她声称，仅这点血液就足以产生精确的检验结果，而无需传统的针头或静脉抽血。

However, Ms Holmes, whose company is under Federal criminal investigation, sidestepped past controversies and used her appearance to unveil a completely new machine, the MiniLab, which she said could enable small samples of blood to be analysed remotely using cloud computing.

然而，其公司正受到联邦刑事调查的霍姆斯，在会上回避了过往的争议，而是利用这一露面机会展示一款全新的机器，称为MiniLab。她声称，借助云计算，用这台机器可以对少量血液样本进行远程分析。

Theranos earned plaudits for the nanotainer when it launched in 2013 but in recent months the company has been tarnished by damaging revelations over the limitations of its technology, culminating in Ms Holmes being banned from the industry for two years.

Theranos的nanotainer在2013年推出后曾赢得赞誉，但在最近数月，该公司的声誉受到损害，原因是有爆料称，其技术存在种种局限性。这一丑闻最终导致霍姆斯面临在两年内不得拥有或掌管这一行业实验室的禁令。

She was handed the ban after a government inspection of one of the company’s labs concluded that erroneous results had put patient lives at risk.

对她的禁令颁布之前，政府部门对该公司实验室之一的检查得出结论：错误结果使患者的生命处于危险之中。

Several scientists on the committee responsible for organising the meeting opposed the decision to invite Ms Holmes fearing it would lend credibility to her company, while others decided to boycott the presentation in protest. They believe the association invited Ms Holmes in order to generate publicity.

会议组织委员会的多名科学家反对邀请霍姆斯，担心这将给她的公司带来不应有的可信度，而还有一些人决定抵制霍姆斯的演讲以示抗议。他们认为，协会邀请霍姆斯是为了炒作。

Dr Andy Hoofnagle, a member of the organising committee, said he and several of his colleagues had “fought really hard to prevent” Ms Holmes from appearing but were overruled by Patricia Jones, the AACC president. “This conference is about peer reviewed science — you don’t bring in advertisers and give them the stage at a scientific meeting,” said Dr Hoofnagle.

组委会成员安迪•胡夫纳格尔博士(Dr Andy Hoofnagle)表示，他和他的几个同事“真的尽了很大努力阻止”霍姆斯来，但他们的意见被美国临床化学协会主席帕特里夏•琼斯(Patricia Jones)否决了。“这场会议展示的是经过同行评议的科学——你不能把广告商请来，让他们登上一个科学会议的舞台，”胡夫纳格尔博士表示。

Ms Jones defended the AACC’s decision to invite Theranos to speak and said that the leadership of the association had the right to determine who should appear.

琼斯辩护了美国临床化学协会邀请霍姆斯发言的决定，称协会领导层有权决定谁应该上台发言。