Researchers retract paper for which first author won an award — but won’t sign notice

Most of the authors of two Molecular Cell papers have retracted them after becoming aware of inappropriate image manipulation by the first author of both — who refused to sign the notices.

One of the papers, “Role of the SEL1L:LC3-I Complex as an ERAD Tuning Receptor in the Mammalian ER,” earned first author Riccardo Bernasconi, who successfully defended his PhD in 2010, the STSBC-Roche Diagnostics award in 2012. Here’s the notice for that paper:

This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. The study reported that expression of misfolded proteins in the ER affects the composition of complexes containing EDEM1, SEL1L, and LC3-I, thereby modulating ERAD activity in the absence of UPR induction. During efforts to extend this work, we have been unable to replicate some of the results obtained by the first author of the paper. The authors have now found that Western blot data shown in Figures 1B, 3A, and 4A were inappropriately processed by the first author of the paper, such that they do not accurately report the original data. This could call into question some of our conclusions on how the presence of misfolded proteins might affect assembly and function of the ERAD machinery. The authors therefore wish to immediately retract the paper. The authors’ lab continues working on the regulation of the ERAD machinery aiming to publish verified data in the near future. The authors sincerely apologize for any difficulties that may have been experienced by the scientific community. The first author, R.B., declined to sign the Retraction Notice.

The study has been cited 23 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

And here’s the notice for “Autoadaptive ER-Associated Degradation Defines a Preemptive Unfolded Protein Response Pathway:”

This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. The study reported that expression of misfolded proteins in the ER affects the composition and stability of the dislocation machinery built around the HRD1 E3 ubiquitin ligase in the absence of UPR induction. During efforts to extend this work, the authors have been unable to replicate some of the results obtained by the first author of the paper, which describe the mechanisms regulating the rapid turnover of HERP and how the presence of misfolded proteins affects the composition and the stability of the HRD1 complex. The authors therefore wish to immediately retract the paper. The authors’ lab continues working on the regulation of the ERAD machinery aiming to publish verified data in the near future. The authors sincerely apologize for any difficulties that may have been experienced by the scientific community. The first author, R.B., declined to sign the Retraction Notice.

That paper has been cited five times.

The corresponding author of both papers, Maurizio Molinari, told us that he did not know where Bernasconi was working now.

Hat tip: Michael LeVine