Search Results for: western blots

Voinnet’s notice count grows, as he notches his 18th correction

Olivier Voinnet, a high-profile plant scientist at ETH Zurich, has earned a mega-correction. It wrapped up a rough year for the biologist, which included his seventh retraction, and a CNRS investigation that found evidence of misconduct. This latest correction, to a paper on the mechanisms behind RNA silencing in Arabidopsis, was published in RNA. The 2007 paper has been cited … Continue reading Voinnet’s notice count grows, as he notches his 18th correction

“Carelessness” forces Science to correct paper about immune booster

Science is fixing images in a paper published online in April that discovered an immune-boosting protein, after the authors mistakenly mixed up similar-looking Western blots. The paper, which received some press coverage, identified a protein that helped the immune system fight off cancers and infections. Philip Ashton-Rickardt, a scientist at Imperial College London who led the study, … Continue reading “Carelessness” forces Science to correct paper about immune booster

Correction “does not change the scientific meaning” of leukemia letter

The journal Blood has issued a correction in a 2009 letter about the molecular underpinnings of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Despite the extent of the changes to a figure, “the error does not change the scientific meaning,” according to the erratum. The article “p73, miR106b, miR34a, and Itch in chronic lymphocytic leukemia” was written in response to a 2009 Blood … Continue reading Correction “does not change the scientific meaning” of leukemia letter

Inquiry into duplications reveals “multiple” image problems in tumor study

A paper on how abnormal stem cells can cause benign bone tumors has been retracted by Cell Stem Cell after an inquiry into image duplications also uncovered “multiple instances of inappropriate western blot image adjustment.” The first two authors “declined” to sign the retraction, according to the notice. Besides confirming initial suspicions that images had been … Continue reading Inquiry into duplications reveals “multiple” image problems in tumor study

Penn State postdoc faked data in cancer manuscript

A former postdoctoral fellow at Penn State University faked numerous data and analyses in a manuscript submitted to Molecular Cancer Research, according to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). In a notice released today, the ORI found Julie Massè:

Cell Press investigating possible image manipulation in influential yeast genetics paper

Cell Press is looking into anonymous allegations that a pair of influential papers on gene activation in yeast may contain more than two dozen instances of image manipulation, according to a spokesperson for the journal. The accusations first appeared in March on PubPeer, where they triggered a small avalanche of comments, including one asserting “unambiguous … Continue reading Cell Press investigating possible image manipulation in influential yeast genetics paper

“The first author assumes all responsibility:” Malaria vaccine article retracted for image manipulation

Authors of a 2012 article in Infection and Immunity investigating a malaria vaccine strategy are retracting it because it “contains several images that do not accurately reflect the experimental data.” The paper, “Fine Specificity of Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein Binding Engagement of the Duffy Antigen on Human Erythrocytes,” has been cited 9 times, according to Thomson … Continue reading “The first author assumes all responsibility:” Malaria vaccine article retracted for image manipulation

Cancer Cell issues big correction over “incorrectly cropped” figures, other issues

A 2014 Cancer Cell paper became the subject of an erratum in January 2015, shortly after PubPeer members began criticizing the data. However, many issues brought up by commenters weren’t addressed in the correction notice, including a figure that might be two experiments spliced together to look like one. The paper, led by Guido Franzoso at Imperial College … Continue reading Cancer Cell issues big correction over “incorrectly cropped” figures, other issues

PLoS ONE mega-correction, but no retraction, for researcher who sued diabetes journal

PLoS ONE has just issued a 12-figure correction on a paper by Mario A. Saad, who sued the American Diabetes Association unsuccessfully in an attempt to prevent it from retracting four papers in its flagship journal Diabetes. The corrections include taking out Western blots copied from another Saad paper, as well as several figures where the bands … Continue reading PLoS ONE mega-correction, but no retraction, for researcher who sued diabetes journal

Retracted paper on herbicide-ovarian cancer connection republished

A retracted 2008 paper originally flagged by Clare Francis has been republished in Environmental Health Perspectives with updated figures and new data. According to the editor’s note appended to the newly published paper, there was no evidence of intentional misconduct on the part of the authors. The new paper went through peer review as an entirely new submission, and comes … Continue reading Retracted paper on herbicide-ovarian cancer connection republished