A challenger appears

Here at the Riddled Experimental Ethics Laboratory (purveyors of the finest, freshest informed consent), naturally we follow the exploits of Dr Alexander Seifalian. As Chair of the Board of Trustees at OA Publishing London,

Alexander Marcus Seifalian is a Professor of Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine, and Director of UCL Centre for Nanotechnology & Regenerative Medicine at University College London (UCL-CNRM).

NO WAIT the OAPL website has been stuck in a time-warp since late 2014 (it is an entertaining and edifying institution in its own right, as described by Neuroskeptic). It has not been updated to reflect the changes in Seifalian's employment status since the Macchiarini scandal, with all the dead patients... this cast unwelcome light upon the whole artificial-organ nanotech-scaffolding area, and his financial irregularities made it convenient for UCL to use him as an ablative heat-shield for the protection of other faculty members.

So here he is again, at the centre of the Scientific Committee of a Global Summit & Expo, vertically compressed (as is the custom), as if the entire committee had been recruited from the inhabitants of a heavy-gravity planet.


Time spent at the website finds the designer observing all the stylistic conventions that we have learned to expect from the hypertextual genre, such as sex-chatline pop-ups that obscure half the text, a pastel-hued shite logo seemingly intended for a Generic Baseball Cap, a contact address that's a virtual office in San Francisco, and the random rolling graphics that are state-of-the-art in Hyderabad web-design.

The scamference perpetrator has chosen a company name "Linkin Science" that suggests an affiliation with LinkedIn without actually claiming one.* So far there are only six Global Summits in the franchise, at two locations, so attendees at the Nanotech Expo will find themselves sharing facilities at the Grand Excelsior Hotel with the Global Cancer Meet and the World Vaccine Summit. Not to forget any antivax loons who are motivated enough to take their flying picket-line to Dubai.

All that makes Linkin Science worth mentioning is the fact that they are not yet another polyp extruded from the OMICS scampire, but rather some goombah wannabee in Hyderabad operating out of his spare room in Flat #203. Abhiram Sathyadurga is abreast with trends in contemporary grifting, and he has purchased a twitbot to circulate bot-chat about the promising appearance and sterling reputation of each upcoming scamboree.

This may be an innovation in the scamference industry. As is bot-chat about eating cheeses and cooked meat, while repeating our opinion because it wants us to like it.

Academic citation style requires link to Oglaf

* Alternative explanation: the company name is a homage to an alt-metal-lite band.

UPDATED FOR COMPLETENESS:
Dr Seifalian retained his obsolete UCL affiliation when he was a drawcard for a skanky little OMICS scamboree in Italy, in June ('Materials Science and Engineering'), However, when he starred at a meeting in Madrid in March ('Biomaterials'), it was in his capacity as Director of his own company (NanoRegMed). The advertising for his presence in Bali next year ('Smart and Emerging Materials') combines both.

In fact his name is a virtual Rolodex of bottom-feeding lowlife scamference predators, such as the delightfully-titled Clyto Access (more Hyderabad gobshites, who expect him as Keynote Speaker at Oxford in February). Plenary Speaker for ICONAN 2017, which appears to be an additional income stream for the owners of MDPI. And many more. But at least every week he spends pimping for scamborees is less time he can spend 3D-printing trachea scaffolds that Macchiarini will use to kill patients.