The methodology agreed by Wakefield and Pounder that rebutted MMR-autism theory

This page is research from an investigation by Brian Deer for the UK's Channel 4 Television and The Sunday Times of London into a campaign linking the MMR children's vaccine with autism. | Go to part I: The Lancet scandal | Go to part II: The Wakefield factor

Even as Andrew Wakefield triggered the MMR scare, he had seen his own lab rebut his theory. Wakefield and his mentor, Prof Roy Pounder, argued that measles virus caused bowel disease, with Wakefield going on to claim that such a disease was responsible for autism. But researcher Nick Chadwick, working under Wakefield's supervision, found no trace of measles virus in autistic children, despite using methods previously agreed in papers co-authored by Wakefield and Pounder, including the two below, finished in 1997

Chadwick, Bruce et al then went to on look for measles virus in autistic children: a third part to this project, carried out in Andrew Wakefield's lab at the Royal Free hospital. Those - also negative - results were never published, but were found in Chadwick's Ph.D thesis