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It's 11 years since this blog began warning of the risks posed by Patrick Muraca and finally now the law is catching up with him.

As reported in the Berkshire Eagle on 16 December Muraca has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud and lying to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has posted $100,000 bail and surrendered his passport.

The legal wheels will no doubt turn slowly, but it finally looks like at least some of his outrageous lies and behaviour will catch up with him.

NanoMolecularDX - Beware

After Muraca's exit from Nuclea I considered retiring from the blogging business and taking this site down. But as predicted, just a few months later and Pat is back.

Now he returns with his latest scam - NanoMolecularDX, LLC - which claims to be an "Emerging Leader in Diagnostics for Wellness, Cancer and Metabolic Diseases".

This time he is set to cure cancer (again) and Metabolic Diseases too. How will he do this I hear you ask? With a laptop placed on a shoe box of course.

From his new website it seems that he will be training his very own Oompa Loompas to produce 'chips' which can be placed in the Shoe Box Reader and the via an App on your iPhone you will be able to 'monitor your health'. Impressive I think you will agree?

What happens next?

I expect a tedious repeat of the Clinomics and Nuclea stories where:

Muraca travels between Pittsfield and SUNY Poly in Utica  promising job creation and miraculous diagnostics.

Small educational establishments will be tempted to partner with him as he promises them funding.

Local politicians will stand alongside him and praise him for what he can do in their biotech-starved boroughs and channel tax-payers hard earned cash to this scam.

The Berkshire Eagle will report uncritically on his successes.

The back-room fraudsters will bleed unknowing and ignorant investors of their hard earned savings.

And then the whole thing will collapse  and Muraca will head off into the sunset to feast again on his ill-gotten gains.

This is a plea to all of you potential collaborators, partners, employees, investors, journalists, suppliers, investigators;  switch your BS detector to high and see for yourself if it makes sense.

Muraca Falls Out of Nuclea

So Patrick J Muraca leaves Nuclea Biotechnologies in a blaze of glory. He tells the Berkshire Eagle upon news of his removal as CEO of the company he founded that "The board thought I did such a good job developing Nuclea that they want me to develop NanoDX" (a new 'business'). Weeks later the new CEO closes the Pittsfield and Cambridge operations.

Nuclea started out from the dust of Muraca's last scam (Clinomics) and with support from his fellow fraudsters he has spun his way through years of ridiculous claims, false promises and by defrauding unknowing investors. Eventually this enabled him to acquire a legitimate business - the former Oncogene Science products business.

To the new CEO of Nuclea Biotechnologies I urge you to burn everything that Muraca has touched, remove every one of his accomplices and salvage whatever credibility might remain for the business you have been tasked to run.

To others beware, Muraca will be back. Maybe it'll be healthcare again, or perhaps it will be through his new role as ballast with the band Whiskey City?  You have been warned.

Name that Fraud

Whilst I am more concerned about the potential risk to health for vulnerable people, than the loss of money by those that are financing this, it is still worthwhile exposing this fraud for what it is.

Are your well intentioned investments in a cancer diagnostics company being mishandled behind a smokescreen of 'collaborations' with legitimate organisations, Is a big proportion of your cash disappearing?

Nuclea claims to have raised $40m from its investors (if you look at their SEC filings then they appear to have raised closer to $25m), but either way its a massive sum. They have no revenues, and give donations of over $5m to long-term acquaintances such as the now Professor Loda at Dana Farber. What have been the outputs of these investments, where have the funds been used?

It's not a Ponzi Scheme. It's not a Pyramid. But have a look at Private Placement Offering Fraud before you put any of your money into this venture.

2013 Deal or no Deal?

It's overdue that we take a look at Nuclea Biotechnologies' activities in 2013. Here are some partnerships announced by them this year.

Nuclea Biotechnologies and Wilex Inc Announce Partnership. Nuclea will offer the WILEX Inc IVD serum HER-2/neu ELISA test starting in April. March 20 2013
Wilex are a real company based in Germany, with a genuine product - something Nuclea has never created. Running tests with this assay might lend credibility to the Nuclea story. If you or a relative are offered this test via a Nuclea Laboratory please read this blog thoroughly before deciding to send your sample to them.

PATRICK MURACA, PRESIDENT ; CEO OF NUCLEA BIOTECHNOLOGIES, INC., APPOINTED TO JIMMY FUND VISITING COMMITTEE. - $5.9 million have been given to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in 2013 by Nuclea - he's an obvious pick for their team. Where did the money come from for such a grand donation from a company with zero revenues and which raises money in drips from unnamed investors?

NUCLEA BIOTECHNOLOGIES AND BERKSHIRE MEDICAL CENTER ANNOUNCE RESEARCH AGREEMENT - June 19, 2013  Once again Muraca returns to home territory in Pittsfield and the ever pliable Berkshire Medical Centre for samples.

Back to the Future for Nuclea in Albany

“Today Nuclea announced a new collaboration with the Stratton VA Medical Center and Albany Research Institute to study genes and proteins that could be used in developing personalized prostate cancer tests.

The partners will work together to analyze samples from patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, or a precancerous benign condition, searching for genes [or] protein characteristics that could be used in diagnostic or prognostic tests. "This collaboration will result in a very unique clinical trial where we will be evaluating how FAS works to diagnose and predict prostate cancer in very specific populations, such as veterans," Nuclea President and CEO Patrick Muraca ” 

(Published in GenomeWeb Daily News - 13 March 2012)

A few immediate questions arise:

1. Why Albany, when Nuclea claims to have filed patents after research performed by it and Dr. Massimo Loda at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute found a predictive relationship between Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) and degree of regression and clinical survival in patients with prostate cancer? Why do this study now when in May 2011 Nuclea was saying “Following successful initial results, Nuclea, working with Dana Farber, will launch a large clinical study to expand on the research”? Is that study not happening?
2. Nuclea went on to say back in May 2011 that using their assay, doctors will be able to correctly classify and diagnose 95% of patients– more than a 20% increase over current diagnostic tools. Really, but this new collaboration sounds very preliminary, ‘searching for genes, or proteins that could be used in tests’, ‘evaluating how FAS works as a diagnostic test’. This is for something they allege to have submitted to FDA. Really?
3. Who’s the collaborator at Albany? Just as we never got a direct quote from Dr Loda or DFCI, nor is anything said in public by Albany Research Institute. 
4. No copy of this announcement can be found on Nuclea’s website, yet it is released to the press – why?
5. Finally for now what makes Veterans a population in the context of a genetic test? 

Is it more a case of using sympathetic views of Veterans to mask gross scientific and financial misdeeds?

I can see smoke, is that your money burning?

Is this blog just about the ludicrous scientific claims of its founder....no! Some people out there are funding this. Here's one way you have already paid $733,000 and private investors appear to have put more than $10m.

This is a company with no product, pointless IP, no peer-reviewed science, a known liar as CEO and very poor record keeping. If it was my money in their hands I'd be asking them some serious questions and if you don't get straight answers, you know who to call.

Recently all the other Directors in addition to Patrick J Muraca were proudly listed on the website, but they seem to have disappeared from view. Here's a reminder;

• Richard Vietor of New York-based PEI Funds
• Robert Pierce CFO
• Paula Evans Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel
• William Harman of New York-based Morgan Stanley Co-founder and director
• Charles Stetson Director
• Dennis Stone Director
• Deborah August -Medical Director and Chief Pathologist
• Christopher S. Drescher - Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Would any of these Directors and Executives care to stand up and let us know what is going on in their (former) Company? Here's where to go; nuclea.fallout@gmail.com. Some of you were warned about this years ago, by phone, by us. Don't leave it too late to blow that whistle.

Filing to FDA

The Jan 11 2012 version of the press release in which Nuclea claim to have submitted a "Pre-Market IDE regulatory filing" to the FDA for their FAS/USP2a diagnostic combo is the predicted step up to yet another level. Their initial press release, (subsequently altered) stated that they had applied for a Pre Market Approval but this was rapidly altered, although it highlights their lack of knowledge of the FDA regulatory process.

If they have made this filing then it takes them into an environment of greater professional scrutiny. If they haven't then there will be a long period of silence on their website as has followed almost all of their previous announcements. Perhaps someone should ask FDA about whether this filing happened....FOI!

A Claim Too Far

The press release first published in May 2011 claiming that a recent Nuclea discovery could change the diagnosis and treament of prostate cancer is still on their site. It makes extraordinary claims that offer false hope to cancer sufferers.

In it they claim that their filing of a Patent Application constitutes 'release' of this breakthrough information. This ignores the considerable prior art in the public domain on this topic including for example this paper from 2003 by the same team as Nuclea claims to be collaborating with. They also claimed that a publication would follow soon and needless to say it hasn't. If it were true this would be front page news the World over.

We would be amazed if the Dana Farber Cancer Institute sanctioned such a release. Has there been a publication of this data that we don't know of? Nuclea needs to put up or shut up on this crass kind of information release. Here's an excerpt:

"NUCLEA DISCOVERY COULD SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE PROSTATE CANCER DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT
Fatty Acid Synthase found to be better predictor than PSA
...Biomarker pioneer Nuclea Biotechnologies, Inc. today released new research that could significantly alter and improve the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated. Nuclea filed a patent application this week after research conducted by the company in conjunction with research performed by Dr. Massimo Loda at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute found a predictive relationship between Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) and degree of regression and clinical survival in patients with prostate cancer.

“This could be a game-changer for men who are at high-risk of metastasis from prostate cancer,” said Patrick J. Muraca, president & CEO of Nuclea. “Too many men are being misclassified and ineffectually treated. Using this assay, doctors will be able to correctly classify and diagnose 95% of patients suffering from this deadly disease – more than a 20% increase over current diagnostic tools."May 12, 2011

OK, wild claim, now prove it with details of a suitable , properly controlled trial, tell us about the test to detect the elevation in FAS and how the results of this test will be evaluated and linked as you claim to survival outcomes for prostate cancer survivors.

Nuclea Biotechnologies "Pat-aints". Dangerous Developments!

I'll refer you to the previous post on Patents. This next one is where you see it start to get serious. One of Muraca's most recent Pat-aint applications is US2009-0263819 - a shortened version can be seen here and the full one you can get at USPTO.
Again, not having time to deconstruct everything in this, I'll pick on just two things.

See page 2 of the PDF and section 0008. Here a claim is made for a gene signatures for genes that encode various phospho-proteins. Well you can't have that, full stop. Even someone as poorly educated as the CEO at Nuclea Biotechnologies must know that a gene encodes a protein, but has no influence on whether that protein is itself phosphorylated.

Second is the familiar ground of where does Muraca get his tissues. The usual answer is of course, "out of thin air" Here he confusingly states on page 6 in (0044) that NSCLC samples from 250 patients undergoing various treatments including erlotinib and gefitinib were sourced. No sense of whether they had responded to these treatments over a meaningful timescale was given, nor why indeed they'd be having lung tissue removed if they were 'responders'.

Table B on page 11 of the PDF paints a different picture with a jumble of tissue microarrays being mentioned. It's just confused nonsense.

The serious point as ever is that Muraca is concocting this to build up the house of cards that is Nuclea Biotechnologies. It keeps getting closer to patients being involved. This needs to stop now and the investors are the only ones that can cut this off immediately. Let's hope they have the guts to confront this.

Patents not Peer Review

Filing a Patent can be a good way to build credibility without all the inconvenience and criticism that comes with peer review. Patrick Muraca at Nuclea Biotechnologies is a master of the art of using patents with their air of respectable authority to bluff investors, whilst always avoiding the scrutiny of knowledgeable peers.

Here's a link to a copy of US Patent 07354725 as a PDF document. This seems at first glance to be a technical document describing the development of some antibodies that claim to detect all members of several families of protein kinases. There are long lists of these kinases with their unusual names and an excellent list of nasty diseases. There are also some nice protein and DNA sequence lists which help to pad it all out to 44 pages - more than enough to switch off the average non-specialist.

But if you know just a bit about this type of thing, you'll see the glaring holes in the document. I don't have time now for a full demolition job on this, but here's a conclusion.

This document describes the development of some polyclonal antibodies (unsophisticated research tools - $2000 of work by a contract lab might have gone into this) that claim to be able to detect most members of the family of proteins called kinases. It alludes to the important role that kinases play in many diseases and then leaps insanely forward to claim that these tools can be the key to diagnosing these diseases, steering treatment and ultimately curing people of these ailments.

If you are a scientist and want to see some jaw droppingly bad pseudo-science, go to Table 5 on page 39 of the PDF. Here Muraca claims to have used his Pan-TK1 polyclonal antisera to analyse human serum and simultaneously "detect the relative phosphorylation of 42 different receptor tyrosine kinases". All that with a single polyclonal antibody. No data on this of course, just a list of the 42 RTKs and an accession number to the gene.

My point, as ever on this blog, is to expose Muraca's blatant disregard for science and his willingness to waste others' money on bogus research.

More Lies

Our favorite person has now latched onto Clark University, and what better way than by pretending that you earned a Ph.D in Psychology (of all things!) from Clark University. http://www.clarku.edu/departments/psychology/people/alumni.cfm, No he didn't -please someone, check this. The last Ph.D he claimed to have earned was from Liberia, a rogue African state.

Tissue Microarrays......here we go again!

"Welcome to the exciting capabilities of Nuclea™ Tissue Arrays (TA)- revolutionary technology for high-throughput characterization of gene and protein expression patterns directly on highly-characterized normal and disease-specific tissue sample sets.
Our Tissue Arrays let you access large datasets, for establishing frequency information and discovering therapeutic, diagnostic and prognostic correlations."

So begins the new brochure proclaiming Nuclea's new TMA product line. But hold on, doesn't this all sound rather familiar? A quick check of an old Clinomics catalog confirms my suspicions and remarkable similarities rapidly emerge.

Nuclea Catalog
NDDA NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE TISSUE ARRAY
Over 200 samples, Pathologist-reviewed, representing relevant brain regions, including substantia nigra, ventral tegmenta, basal ganglia, for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.

Clinomics Catalog
LD-ND-1 NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE SURVEY
Pathologist-reviewed, representing relevant brain regions, including substantia nigra, ventral tegmenta, basal ganglia, for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS.

or compare Nuclea's new NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASE TISSUE ARRAY
Over 200 samples, Pathologist-reviewed, representing relevant brain region, including cingulated gyrus, hippocampus, amygdala, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, cortex, for bipolar, schizophrenia, schizoid personality disorder, and major depression. Bilateral representation, with clinically-defined normal brain controls.

with that of Clinomics,
LD-NP-1 NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASE SURVEY
Pathologist-reviewed, representing relevant brain region, including cingulated gyrus, hippocampus, amygdala, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, cortex, for bipolar, schizophrenia, schizoid personality disorder, and major depression. Bilateral representation, with clinically-defined normal brain controls

You can see where this is going by now I guess. Well it doesn't stop there and the entire catalog is a carbon-copy of Clinomics'.

Now here's a question for you. Where did these arrays come from? Were they gifted to him when he was fired? Has he decided to make identical arrays, with identical samples and put them together in a near identical catalog? Or could it be just more of his Tissue of Lies?

Here's the serious bit. If you are planning on putting your research on the line using these products to validate your hard earned data, think very carefully indeed. Garbage in, Garbage out.

"Nuclea Biomarkers, LLC is a biotechnology services company that has developed a novel technology platform to improve greatly the efficiency of drug discovery research. "Well it's clearly not novel and it's very likely to have the opposite effect on your productivity.

Scientific Credentials of CEO

The CEO has claimed to have earned a variety of academic qualifications over the years including a Ph.D and M.P.H . The Ph.D. was of course purchased from the very prestigious 'Saint Regis University' a particularly down-market diploma mill based in Liberia. Still it got him a mention on Spokesman Review - http://www.spokesmanreview.com/data/diploma-mill/cover.asp?name=muraca

Even as late as Jan 2012 Muraca has failed to wipe away the stain of this particular lie. Here's a press release authored by him in which he claims both of these bogus qualifications.

A few ground rules

The purpose of this new blog is to keep a close eye on the claims being made by Nuclea Biomarkers as to the nature of its products and services.

We have reason to believe that this company and management routinely stretch the boundaries of truth and accuracy beyond breaking point and that in doing so may jeopardize important medical research, waste tax payers' dollars and investors money and damage the careers of those who interact with it into the bargain.

Please focus your posts on facts and personal experience.