An itinerant materials scientist whose former lab head has accused publicly of misconduct is up to nine retractions for manipulating his data.
We last wrote about Hossein Hosseinkhani in 2016, after he’d lost seven papers stemming from his time as a researcher in the lab of Yasuhiko Tabata, of the Institute for Frontier Life and Medical Sciences at Kyoto University in Japan.
Since then, the researcher has lost two more articles, including, most recently, a 2001 article he wrote with Tabata that appeared in the Proceedings of the Japanese Academy of Sciences. According to the retraction notice for the paper, titled “In vitro transfection of plasmid DNA by different cationized gelatin with or without ultrasound irradiation.”
The notice reads:
I, as the corresponding author, regretfully retract the above-mentioned paper published in Proc. Jpn. Acad. Ser. B 77(8) 151–166 (2001). Mr. Hossein Hosseinkhani, the first author of this paper, published 18 papers with me when he was in my laboratory. The editors or I recently found that at least 8 of his papers carry figures that are apparently duplicated or modified. These papers have been retracted. I have found similar apparent duplications and modifications in Figure 1 of the above-mentioned paper published in Proc. Jpn. Acad. Ser. B, and am uncertain about the scientific integrity of the paper. Despite many attempts, I cannot reach Mr. Hossein Hosseinkhani via E-mail. All other authors agree with this retraction.
We noticed that Tabata didn’t retract this 2002 paper, “In vitro transfection of plasmid DNA by amine derivatives of gelatin accompanied with ultrasound irradiation,” in Pharmaceutical Research, on which Hosseinhkani also was first author.
When we last wrote about Hosseinkhani, he was working at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei. He now appears to be the chief science officer at a New York City biotech company called Matrix Inc., which seems to want to do a little bit of everything:
Matrix is Innovation Center for Advanced Technology and the largest supplier of intelligent materials and committed to accelerating customers’ success through innovation and leadership in Health Care Technology, Nanomedicine, and Service Sectors. Matrix as a trusted world leader in all aspects of Advanced Technology and Service Sectors operate in the world that provide excellent service in scientific research and quality products delivered on time and as promised.
The management team consists of a dedicated group of professionals from Universities, Research Institutes, R&D, Business Administration, Manufacturing, Law Firm, and Capital Operation Domain with rich experience and bold innovation who are expert in their own field with scientific and business development knowledge to expand Matrix’s strategies into international markets.
Neither Hosseinkhani nor Tabata responded to a request for comment.
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