Judge Denies UCSD Motion in Alzheimer's Research Lawsuit

Suit accuses prominent Alzheimer's disease researcher of conspiring to take research data.

A judge denied motions Tuesday in the legal battle between UC San Diego and University of Southern California over their respective Alzheimer’s programs.

Scientist Paul Aisen left UCSD in June to head a new Alzheimer's institute founded by USC in San Diego. Eight staffers went with him.

A lawsuit filed by UC San Diego alleges that Aisen and USC conspired to take federal funding, data and employees from UCSD, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In San Diego Tuesday, UC San Diego argued USC should be penalized for allegedly misusing information from a deposition in the case.

Instead, Judge Judith F. Hayes ordered both sides to come together for another hour of depositions.

She argued the extra time should resolve any issue with either side being “evasive.”

The next hearing was scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m.

UC San Diego said it has been deprived of access to data from the Alzheimer's project because of violations by Aisen and the other defendants and potentially could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and private funding.

The University of California is seeking an unspecified amount of money, to be determined through a jury trial.

USC denied wrongdoing and said it simply successfully recruited a prestigious scientist.

Aisen is best known for leading the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, or ADCS, a nationwide effort to speed up getting promising Alzheimer's treatments to patients.

Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the study has been based at UC San Diego since its creation in 1991.

Copyright The Associated Press
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