"Acidic" stem cells: the investigation is over, forget it
Japanese researchers from the RIKEN Institute nevertheless withdrew both articles published in the journal Nature in January 2014, which described the so-called STAP technology that ensures the transformation of adult cells into pluripotent stem cells by immersion in an acidic environment for 30 minutes.
The simplicity of this approach promised rapid development of regenerative medicine, but within a few months after publication, research groups around the world began to declare that they could not reproduce the results described in the articles. Moreover, many errors were found in the publications, including corrected images of protein gel electrophoresis panels, as well as incorrectly signed images.
To investigate the issue in RIKEN, a commission was created, according to the results of which the authors were charged with a number of charges.
On July 2, the journal Nature published two statements in which the authors withdraw their publications. They apologize, and also admit numerous errors that cast doubt on the published results, and that they cannot confidently declare the existence of the STAP phenomenon.
The editorial article "STAP retracted" published in parallel highlights the fact that the story with STAP cells revealed the imperfection of the process of accepting and reviewing publications. The editors of Nature note the need to correct this situation, as the current state of things may cause readers to distrust science.
At the same time, one of the authors of the articles, Charles Vacanti from Harvard University, assures that, despite his strong disappointment about this whole story, he continues to believe in the existence of STAP cells. He believes that the right decision is that both Riken and a number of other independent laboratories are going to try to reproduce the experiments described in the recalled articles without haste.
Evgenia Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of New Scientist:
Acid-bath stem cell papers are finally retracted.
07.07.2014