A once-rising star in stem cell biology — who recently lost both her job and a sizable grant — has had a fourth paper retracted.
The notice — issued by Nature for a 2006 letter — cites duplicated images, and a lack of raw data to verify the findings. First author Susana Gonzalez — who was dismissed from her position at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Spain last February over allegations of misconduct — couldn’t be reached by the journal.
Here’s the full text of the retraction notice:
In this Letter, some PCR input panels contain duplicated bands (Figs 1b and 2a; and Supplementary Figs 4 and 6a). In Fig. 2e, the ARF promoter panel is a duplicate of the RD panel in Supplementary Fig. 8c. The raw data were not available to verify the data. Given these issues, the authors wish to retract the Letter. The authors deeply regret these errors and apologize to the community. Peter Klatt, Sonia Delgado, Esther Conde, Fernando Lopez-Rios, Montserrat Sanchez-Cespedes, Juan Mendez, Francisco Antequera and Manuel Serrano agree with the Retraction of the Letter. Susana Gonzalez could not be reached.
“Oncogenic activity of Cdc6 through repression of the INK4/ARF locus” has been cited 133 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science. The letter has been discussed on PubPeer.
Following misconduct allegations, Gonzalez was fired from the CNIC (a decision which she appealed), and one of her grants (totaling nearly 2 million Euros) was suspended.  Earlier this year, she received two retractions in Nature Communications, which also cited figure duplications and missing raw data. Cell Cycle has also retracted a 2012 paper she co-authored.
Jose F. de Celis, head of the Centre for Molecular Biology “Severo Ochoa” (CBMSO), where Gonzalez was working in March (but on sick leave), told us:
Susana is not longer at CBMSO, she requested a transfer and we though it was the best option.
Update, 1745 UTC time, July 13, 2017: El Pais reported today that the European Research Council has withdrawn its 1.86 million euro award to Gonzalez.
Hat tip:Â Khalid El Bairi
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Mol Cell Biol still has this one on its books.
Mol Cell Biol. 2003 Nov; 23(22): 8161–8171.
doi: 10.1128/MCB.23.22.8161-8171.2003
PMCID: PMC262369
p73α Regulation by Chk1 in Response to DNA Damage
Susana Gonzalez,1 Carol Prives,2 and Carlos Cordon-Cardo1,*
Division of Molecular Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021,1 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 100272
*Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Molecular Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/4737062638FE89F825E20117DEAEAA
Cancer Res still has this one on its books.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/65/6/2186.long
Cancer Res. 2005 Mar 15;65(6):2186-92.
Susana Gonzalez, Manuel M. Perez-Perez, Eva Hernando, Manuel Serrano and Carlos Cordon-Cardo
p73beta-Mediated apoptosis requires p57kip2 induction and IEX-1 inhibition.
Author information
Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. [email protected]
https://pubpeer.com/publications/ABB7746FD5493450293B8B1F2BBA61
2017 retraction.
Mol Cell Biol. 2003 Nov; 23(22): 8161–8171.
doi: 10.1128/MCB.23.22.8161-8171.2003
PMCID: PMC262369
p73α Regulation by Chk1 in Response to DNA Damage
Susana Gonzalez,1 Carol Prives,2 and Carlos Cordon-Cardo1,*
Division of Molecular Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021,1 Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 100272
*Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Molecular Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021.
2017 retraction notice.
http://mcb.asm.org/content/37/18/e00365-17.short
RETRACTION
Volume 23, no. 22, p. 8161–8171, 2003, https://doi.org/10.1128/MCB.23.22.8161-8171.2003. After publication, this article was found to have problematic figures. Digital experts have informed us that some of the published data in this paper were very likely digitally manipulated. This represents a major deviation from established scientific standards for publications, and therefore we retract this paper. We apologize for these errors.