Alirio Melendez notches retractions 10 and 11

jbcmarch13coverFormer National University of Singapore and University of Liverpool scientist Alirio Melendez has two more of the 20-something retractions suggested by the investigations into his work. Both appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Here’s the notice for “FcγRI-triggered generation of arachidonic acid and eicosanoids requires iPLA2 but not cPLA2 in human monocytic cells:”

This article has been retracted by the publisher.

An investigation by the National University of Singapore determined that duplicated images were included in Figs. 4C and 7A, and images in Fig. 4D were published previously in Fig. 5E of Melendez, A. J., and Khaw, K. A. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 17255–17262.

The paper has been cited 28 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

And here’s the notice for “Dichotomy of Ca2+ signals triggered by different phospholipid pathways in antigen stimulation of human mast cells:”

This article has been retracted by the publisher.

An investigation by the National University of Singapore determined that duplicated images were included in Figs. 1C and 5D.

The paper has been cited 134 times.

We should note that we’re pleased to see the JBC maintain their policy of including some information in some of their retraction notices.

7 thoughts on “Alirio Melendez notches retractions 10 and 11”

  1. “University of Glasgow tight-lipped over ethics inquiry”

    http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/420998.article

    I think that he was also at Glasgow a long time before 2007.

    If you look at these 9 publications they all have AJ Melendez and JM Allen, and are on the same sorts of topics, and nearly all mention Glasgow University.

    I think that there was no satisfactory explanation JM Allen quitting her post in late summer 2011.

    http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/418084.article

    The organisation for which she worked did not like the media coverage.

    http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2011/111110-n-janet-allen-resignation.aspx

  2. Another one: The following article from Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology ‘Short Interfering RNA (siRNA) as a Novel Therapeutic’ by Pushparaj and Melendez[1] published online on 12 May 2006 in Wiley Online Library (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com) and in Volume 33 (5–6) pp 504–510, has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief Roger Evans and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. The retraction has been agreed following an investigation by the National University of Singapore (http://www.nus.edu.sg/) into the publications of A.J. Melendez which uncovered substantial overlap between this article and two previously published articles:

    Ryther RCC, Flynt AS, Phillips JA III, Patton JG. siRNA therapeutics: big potential from small RNAs. Gene Ther. 2005; 12: 5–11, doi: 10.1038/sj.gt.3302356.

    Karagiannis TC, El-Osta A. RNA interference and potential therapeutic applications of short interfering RNAs. Cancer Gene Ther. 2005; 12: 787–795, doi: 10.1038/sj.cgt.7700857.

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