metamatar-deactivated20250401:
metamatar-deactivated20250401:
the original paper on getting stem cells that can become blood cells from adult bone marrow has officially been retracted from nature due to doctored images and reused data. it is the most cited paper to ever be retracted (4500 citations) and becones the 4th retraction attributed to catherine verfaillie.
Nature retracts highly cited 2002 paper that claimed adult stem cells could become any type of cell
the political motivations behind this kind of fraud really shouldn’t be ignored either, the reason this research was so exciting is because it allowed sidestepping the hot button concerns around embroynic stem cell research. politicians were touting this stuff! despite questions about data integrity being present as early as 2006 and verfaille having two papers already retracted by 2009.
There is essentially one woman monitoring scientific fraud in biology. Her name is Elisabeth Bik and she’s a hero. She’s been doing this thankless, endless work for years and I don’t know how she has the stamina. She’s so surprised they retracted this paper because most of the time when she proves fraud, nothing is done. And she knows she’s not even scratching the surface of all the fraudulent papers out there.
Science has a huge fraud problem. Another reason why you should NEVER trust any fact that’s only been shown in 1 study, or only in studies from the same lab.