Image duplications and unsupported data continue to plague a network of cancer researchers that includes the former vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Los Angeles, James Economou.
On July 2, the editors at Cancer Research retracted a 2011 paper that Economou published as last author, saying it suffered from image duplication and unsupported figures. This is the second retraction we’re aware of to come out of an investigation by UCLA’s Office of Research Policy and Compliance that has touched this group of scientists.
Here’s the notice for “Molecular Mechanism of MART-1+/A*0201+ Human Melanoma Resistance to Specific CTL-Killing Despite Functional Tumor–CTL Interaction,” which says the retraction comes at the request of UCLA:
Following an institutional review, it was determined that data used in some of the figures cannot be supported; specifically, the 3- and 6-hour bands in Fig. 4C are duplicates of the M329-actin bands in Fig. 4A. To ensure that the research record is correct, the institution has requested that the article be retracted. The authors have been made aware of this retraction.
The 2011 paper has been cited 23 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science.
Economou — who stepped down as vice chancellor in 2015 but remains chief of the division of surgical oncology — now has two retractions and they’re closely connected. His first retraction appeared earlier this year, in May, in another journal published by the American Association for Cancer Research. He and UCLA requested that Molecular Cancer Therapeutics retract one of his papers, because it contained an image also found in the 2011 Cancer Research article. Both papers listed Economou as last author.
Economou did not respond to our requests for comment, which we issued directly and through UCLA’s press office.
Co-author Benjamin Bonavida, also of UCLA, told Retraction Watch that by the time he found out about the retraction on June 9, in an email from an editor at the journal:
It was already fait accompli.
Cancer Research declined to provide more information on the retraction process. A spokesperson told Retraction Watch:
Given that the article in question has already been retracted, any shareable information relevant to our correction of the literature is included in the published retraction notice.
All but one of the five co-authors on the 2011 Cancer Research paper have had papers retracted for image issues — papers they’ve often published with each other.
The paper’s first author, Ali Jazirehi, a research faculty member in UCLA’s department of surgery, was also first author on the paper retracted by Molecular Cancer Therapeutics in May. This is his third retraction. He did not respond to Retraction Watch’s request for comment.
Bonavida, who has retired from running a lab at UCLA, now has four retractions. In December 2016, two papers listing Bonavida as last author were retracted, also for image duplication. Jazirehi was a co-author on one of those two papers. Bonavida told Retraction Watch that his involvement in the Cancer Research paper was only as a “consultant” who looked it over before it was submitted:
All the work was done in Economou’s lab, not mine. I have no idea what exactly took place.
The original findings, they were all prepared by Ali Jazirehi.
Bonavida added that he knew Jazirehi well, as Jazirehi had worked in his lab “many years” before.
Second author Stavroula Baritaki, whose LinkedIn page says she’s a cancer researcher at UCLA’s medical school, has now been involved in three retractions — all written with Bonavida, and two with her as first author. She was co-first author on a now-retracted paper in the Journal of Immunology. The other lead author on that paper was Eriko Suzuki, who in 2014 confessed on PubPeer that she asked Oncogene to retract another paper she co-authored with Bonavida after discovering image problems; she later told us that because the paper was part of her PhD, her degree had been rescinded.
Hat tip: Rolf Degen
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http://people.healthsciences.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=8283
” Dr. Economou has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since joining the faculty and has chaired two NIH study sections.”
How come the NIH did not spot any of the duplications?
Way to go NIH!! Let’s keep pouring in tons of money into “productive” investigators with suspect scientific practices, while honest scientists are being starved. Is it a surprise that public trust in NIH funded research is fast eroding? In light of such gross misappropriation of public funds for so-called research that isn’t worth the paper it is published on, why would the public oppose Trump’s cuts to the NIH budget?
“why would the public oppose Trump’s cuts to the NIH budget?” that is an uncomfortable message for swathe of the professional middle-class who did not keep its house in order.
many were willing to cheat in order to get funded and published… However, the punishment for this kind of conduct did not work very well for preventing this
I’m not in the scientific research field, but it seems odd that an “author” can just say “I have no idea what exactly took place” and wash their hands of any problems. Maybe the roles need to be more clearly identified: authors (take full responsibility and credit), colleagues (lab associates or advisors who helped in a materials but limited way, but do not take full responsibility or get full credit) and consultants (who provided specialized advice in one area, like stats).
typo: materials s/b material (but I have not idea what exactly took place).
Will the investigation report be available?
It could be interesting to see how serious UCLA is in their investigation of these guys. There seems to be a long list of highly problematic issues with papers from this group of researchers:
https://pubpeer.com/search?q=ali+jazirehi
https://pubpeer.com/search?q=stavroula+baritaki
Time to clean up the literature.
As one who has conducted multiple inquiries and investigations, my experiences have revealed some things regarding misconduct. Currently, the potential punishment for cheating/research fraud is essentially the same as not cheating: loss of career. This is one of the main reasons that research misconduct is so common – much more, even, than reported. To clean up the research enterprise ABSOLUTELY requires imposition of real risk, i.e., civil and criminal actions. There’s no other way around it. Impose these risks and misconduct/fraud by these people will diminish greatly.
Another reason (or set of reasons) is mental illness. I believe this is a more important factor than most people realize. Clearly, this issue is more resistant to solutions.
“Bonavida told Retraction Watch that his involvement in the Cancer Research paper was only as a “consultant” who looked it over before it was submitted”. That is not enough to warrant authorship.
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
“2. Who Is an Author?
The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. “
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Oct 21;336(2):692-701.
Inhibition of the transcription factor Yin Yang 1 activity by S-nitrosation.
Hongo F1, Garban H, Huerta-Yepez S, Vega M, Jazirehi AR, Mizutani Y, Miki T, Bonavida B.
Author information
1
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Figure 3.
See: https://imgur.com/NwrBdsz
Data in J Immunol. 2005 Aug 15;175(4):2174-83 from Cancer Res. 2005 Jan 1;65(1):264-76.
See: https://imgur.com/BYYRunA
1. J Immunol. 2005 Aug 15;175(4):2174-83.
Rituximab-induced inhibition of YY1 and Bcl-xL expression in Ramos non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cell line via inhibition of NF-kappa B activity: role of YY1 and Bcl-xL in Fas resistance and chemoresistance, respectively.
Vega MI1, Jazirehi AR, Huerta-Yepez S, Bonavida B.
Author information
1
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
2. Cancer Res. 2005 Jan 1;65(1):264-76.
Rituximab (chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody) inhibits the constitutive nuclear factor-{kappa}B signaling pathway in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma B-cell lines: role in sensitization to chemotherapeutic drug-induced apoptosis.
Jazirehi AR1, Huerta-Yepez S, Cheng G, Bonavida B.
Author information
1
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
First author on the 2 retractions mentioned in this post is appealing wrongful termination.
https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la23-ali-reza-jazirehi-vs-regents-of-the-university-of-california-232940
Looks like the senior author has not been terminated as he is the first defendant.
Senior author on the two retractions mentioned in this post seems to back as Vice Chancellor for Research at UCLA, yet more porblematic data is coming to light.
Senior author: https://www.mimg.ucla.edu/people/james-economou-md-phd/
Problematic data Cell Cycle. 2010 Dec 15;9(24):4931-40 from Cancer Res. 2009 Nov 1;69(21):8376-85 where it represented a different protein.
See: https://imgur.com/Jhx1NMf
Also see: https://pubpeer.com/publications/20381A71057FCF3000630F12D408EF
1. Cell Cycle. 2010 Dec 15;9(24):4931-40. Epub 2010 Dec 15.
Mechanisms of nitric oxide-mediated inhibition of EMT in cancer: inhibition of the metastasis-inducer Snail and induction of the metastasis-suppressor RKIP.
Baritaki S1, Huerta-Yepez S, Sahakyan A, Karagiannides I, Bakirtzi K, Jazirehi A, Bonavida B.
Author information
1
Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2. Cancer Res. 2009 Nov 1;69(21):8376-85. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-1069. Epub 2009 Oct 20.
Pivotal roles of snail inhibition and RKIP induction by the proteasome inhibitor NPI-0052 in tumor cell chemoimmunosensitization.
Baritaki S1, Yeung K, Palladino M, Berenson J, Bonavida B.
Author information
1
Department of Microbiology, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, California 90095-736422, USA.
2021 retraction. Note: Benjamin Bonavida as co-author.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 21;9(3):e92478. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092478. eCollection 2014.
Raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) blocks signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) activation in breast and prostate cancer
Saad Yousuf 1, MeiLi Duan 2, Erika L Moen 1, Sam Cross-Knorr 1, Kate Brilliant 1, Benjamin Bonavida 3, Theresa LaValle 4, Kam C Yeung 5, Fahd Al-Mulla 6, Eugene Chin 7, Devasis Chatterjee 1
Affiliations1Department of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital and The Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.2Department of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital and The Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America; Department of Critical Care Medicine, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.3Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.4Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.5Department of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology, University of Toledo, College of Medicine, Toledo, Ohio, United States of America.6Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat, Kuwait.7Department of Surgical Research, Rhode Island Hospital and The Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.PMID: 24658061 PMCID: PMC3962420 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092478
Retraction: Raf Kinase Inhibitor Protein (RKIP) Blocks Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) Activation in Breast and Prostate Cancer (plos.org)
Following the publication of this article [1], concerns were raised regarding results presented in Figs 1, 2, and 4.
Specifically,
Vertical irregularities suggestive of splice lines were detected in the following panels:○. Fig 1D, RKIP panel, between lanes 2 and 3.○.
Fig 2A DU145 RKIP panel, between lanes 1 and 2, as well as between lanes 2 and 3.○. Fig 2A PC3 RKIP panel, between lanes 1 and 2, as well as between lanes 2 and 3.
In Fig 2D, the PC3 PARP panel appears similar to the first two lanes of the right (DU145) panel, despite representing results obtained from different cell lines.In Fig 4A, the following similarities were detected between lanes presented in the middle panel and lanes presented in the right panel:○.
The first two lanes of the middle pY705 STAT3 panel appear similar to the first two lanes of the right pY705 STAT 3 panel. However, the corresponding Actin panel results for these lanes do not appear to match.○.
Lanes 3 and 4 in the middle panel appear similar to lanes 7 and 8 in the middle panel respectively, despite being used to represent different experimental conditions.○.
The last lane of the middle pY705 STAT3 panel appears similar to the last lane of the right pY705 STAT3 panel, despite being used to represent different experimental conditions.
The authors have not provided the original images underlying the panels of concern.In light of the concerns affecting multiple figure panels that question the integrity of the data, the PLOS ONE Editors retract this article.ELM agreed with the retraction and apologises for the issues with the published article. BB did not agree with the retraction. SY, MD, SC-K, KB, TL, KCY, FA-M, EC, and DC either did not respond directly or could not be reached.
Reference1.Yousuf S, Duan M, Moen EL, Cross-Knorr S, Brilliant K, Bonavida B, et al. (2014) Raf Kinase Inhibitor Protein (RKIP) Blocks Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) Activation in Breast and Prostate Cancer. PLoS ONE 9(3): e92478. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092478 pmid:24658061