Yahoo – AFP,
1 April 2014
Haruko
Obokata, Riken institute's lead researcher, at a press conference at the Riken center in Kobe in Hyogo prefecture on January 28, 2014 |
A Japanese
research institute said Tuesday it will punish a young female scientist after a
probe found a ground-breaking study on the production of stem cells was
fabricated.
Riken
institute head, Ryoji Noyori, who jointly won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in
2001, said in a statement he will "rigorously punish relevant people after
procedures in a disciplinary committee."
The
punishment is expected to be meted out to lead researcher Haruko Obokata and
her more experienced colleagues.
Riken
institute head Ryoji Noyori listens to questions during a press conference in Tokyo on March 14, 2014 |
The study
outlined a relatively simple way to grow transplant tissue in the lab by
converting regular adult cells into a kind of stem cell -- a cell that has the
potential to become differentiated into the various specialised cells that make
up the brain, heart, kidneys and other organs.
But it
faced questions after the respected institute, which sponsored the study,
launched an inquiry last month over the credibility of its data.
Among key
concerns was that researchers used erroneous images -- crucial to supporting
the study -- which resembled those used in Obokata's doctoral dissertation in
2011.
This
"amounts to phony research or fabrication," Shunsuke Ishii, head of
Riken's probe committee told a press conference Tuesday.
But Obokata
hit back, saying she was surprised and angry about the findings.
"I
will file a complaint against Riken as it's absolutely impossible for me to
accept this," she said Tuesday in a statement.
The study
had been billed as the third great advance in stem cells -- a field that aims
to reverse Alzheimer's, cancer and other crippling or lethal diseases.
It took a
big hit last month after Teruhiko Wakayama, a Yamanashi University professor
who co-authored the article, called for a retraction.
Nature has
said it has launched its own investigation.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment