Stem cell biology
Haruko Obokata: STAP cells, 2014
RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Japan
Misconduct found RIKEN found misconduct in 2014, both Nature papers were retracted that year, and Waseda University revoked her doctorate in 2015.1,3,6
Papers
| Paper | Action | Date | Reason stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency, and a companion Letter Nature, 2014 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature135982,3,7 | Retracted | 2 July 2014 | She agreed in June 2014 to retract both papers after the RIKEN committee findings, and the papers were retracted in July, according to Retraction Watch and The Japan Times. RIKEN replication efforts later failed to produce STAP cells. |
| Reproducible subcutaneous transplantation of cell sheets into recipient mice Nature Protocols, 2011 https://retractionwatch.com/2016/02/26/stap-stem-cell-researcher-obokata-loses-another-paper/5 | Retracted | February 2016 | Co-authors raised concerns about two similar graphs, could not locate some raw data, and were no longer confident in the results, according to Retraction Watch. |
| The potential of stem cells in adult tissues representative of the three germ layers Tissue Engineering Part A, 2011 https://retractionwatch.com/2020/02/13/fourth-retraction-for-haruko-obokata-focus-of-stap-cell-scandal-after-harvard-investigation/4 | Retracted | February 2020 | The authors agreed to retract because the committee could not validate the accuracy of the corrections, after a Harvard Medical School integrity committee review, according to Retraction Watch. |
Investigations
- RIKEN Investigative Committee (chair Shunsuke Ishii), 31 March 2014Found research misconduct corresponding to falsification in a composite gel image and research misconduct involving fabrication in images resembling those in her doctoral thesis. Other items were judged oversights or negligence rather than misconduct.1
- Waseda University, 2015Revoked her doctorate after she did not correct inaccuracies in her thesis as requested, according to The Japan Times. Retraction Watch reported the thesis contained significant amounts of text plagiarised from the US National Institutes of Health.6,5
Response
In a letter to a journalist she wrote that she never wrote those papers to deceive anyone and maintained that STAP was real (Retraction Watch, 2016).5
Sources
- RIKEN, Report on STAP cell research paper investigation (31 March 2014)
- Retraction Watch, Obokata agrees to retract both STAP stem cell papers: Report (4 June 2014)
- The Japan Times, Obokata fails to replicate STAP cells at Riken (18 December 2014)
- Retraction Watch, Fourth retraction for Haruko Obokata, focus of STAP cell scandal, after Harvard investigation (13 February 2020)
- Retraction Watch, STAP stem cell researcher Obokata loses another paper (26 February 2016)
- The Japan Times, Waseda University to strip Obokata of Ph.D. (2 November 2015)
- Nature, via Crossref, Retraction Note: Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency, Crossref metadata (2 July 2014)