In April 2024, Shang-You Yang, an adjunct associate professor in Wichita State’s biology department, was supervising a cancer research project. By the end of the month, the project was suspended due to violations of lab animal use protocols.
A preliminary report that the university submitted to the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare after the incident details what happened.
The Sunflower obtained a copy of the report from Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, as well as the final report and other relevant communication between employees at Wichita State and OLAW. They detail the events of the project, the four protocols that were violated and the corrective actions to be taken by Yang.
Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! opposes all research using animals. They obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In addition to his role at WSU, Yang is a research professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center and a senior research scientist at Via Christi’s Orthopedic Research Institute. In December 2024, the University Daily Kansan reported another KU researcher was found conducting unapproved surgeries on rats.
Yang did not respond to The Sunflower’s attempts to contact him.
What happened
Yang’s team was researching a topical medication following the removal of breast cancer, “a novel tamoxifen-containing hydrogel,” according to the report. They injected cancer cells into six mice in order to perform surgery to remove the cancer. Then, Yang and his students were supposed to test a topical medication applied after the procedure. But things went wrong.
According to an email from WSU to OLAW’s Division of Compliance Oversight, the “tumors grew bigger than expected.” Shang determined that only three of the mice “would be able to handle the surgery.”
He then performed the surgery on the three remaining mice.
It was revealed in the investigation that the mice, instead of being injected with breast cancer cells in one site, had been injected in two sites, violating the preapproved protocol for the project. But it was not identified whether this is what caused the cancer to grow faster than expected.
According to Wichita State’s report, the mice should have been operated on when they had stage two cancer, in accordance with the research protocol, but these mice had progressed to stage three.
The report referred to this as “disregard for animal welfare minimizing pain and distress.” It went on to say, Yang “allowed 3 mice to survive a surgery when they should have been euthanized.”
According to the July 1 email, Shang also allowed two student research assistants to provide anesthesia and one student to help perform the surgery.
The university’s final report to OLAW said Shang misunderstood the required training, allowing students to participate in capacities for which they had not been trained. The students completed online training modules but were not trained for anesthesia use or surgery, according to the report.
After the surgery, the report said Shang “determined that the 3 mice would not survive long.”
Shang did not euthanize the mice. Instead, they were left unsupervised for the next 17 hours overnight, the report said.
An animal care technician, the report continued, found two of the mice dead and one “cold and almost dead.” The technician then euthanized the final mouse.
The investigation and results
When WSU was made aware of the violations, it suspended the project, reported the issue to OLAW and investigated the matter.
Kim Cluff, chair of WSU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, quoted an email from Yang in his correspondence with OLAW.
According to Cluff’s email, Yang wrote, “I feel terribly sorry for the unfortunate incident and the violation of IACUC regulations when handling mice.”
“These violations not only impaired animal welfare and wasted resources/time of IACUC members and the administrators,” Yang wrote, “but they also humiliated my reputation as a senior researcher with more than 30-year-experience in animal experiments.”
Yang outlined six corrective actions he would take in future research.
This included paying close attention to correct procedures when using animals, better training of student assistants, not operating on animals that are not fit, allowing a veterinarian and animal care technician to supervise, properly monitoring animals before and after surgery and submitting new protocols if continuing the project.
The project, according to the documents, was privately funded. According to Lainie Mazzullo-Hart, WSU’s director of communications, the university is “unable” to say where the funding originated.
In the excerpt from his email, Yang wrote that the grant used to support the project would soon expire.
“I will submit an amendment to the IACUC if more fund is secured to continue the breast cancer project,” the email said.
However, Yang ultimately decided not to continue the project, according to the final report and other emails.
Mazzullo-Hart addressed the case on behalf of WSU.
“During the research, three mice were impacted, and it was determined that, although no federal laws were violated, required protocols and training were not followed,” Mazzullo-Hart wrote in an email.
Mazzullo-Hart said the IACUC immediately reported the issues to OLAW and “took appropriate corrective action.”
According to Mazzullo-Hart, animal research constitutes a very small portion of the research done at WSU.
“On average, a total of 30 animals (mice, rats and hamsters) have been involved in studies at WSU over the past three years,” she said via email.
Michael Budkie, the cofounder and director of Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, said he contacted university leadership, asking that Yang be prevented from conducting future animal studies.
Budkie said he received no response from the university.
“The staff that were connected to this research project should be permanently banned from animal use and the Wichita State Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee needs to be reconstituted,” Budkie said.
