Forget about STAP cells
Japan's Riken University stops trying to prove the existence of STAP cells
Igor Belyaev, TASS
The Japanese Institute of Natural Sciences "Riken" stops all attempts to prove the existence of so-called STAP cells and, as a result, to confirm the authenticity of the research of scientist Haruko Obokata, who claimed that she managed to create these latest embryonic stem cells. This was officially announced by the Japanese State Research Institute.
Riken also officially confirmed the information that appeared in the local media the day before that the author of research on STAP cells, Haruko Obokata, could not recreate them during a specially arranged experiment. Thus, the existence of STAP cells could not be confirmed once again.
Haruko Obokata quit RikenHaruko Obokata resigned from the Riken Institute of Natural Sciences after she failed to confirm their existence.
This was officially announced by the Japanese State Research Institute.
At the same time, Obokata stated that she was "stunned" by the negative results of the experiment. "I am stunned by such results," she said. – I am aware of the consequences and responsibility for causing a lot of inconvenience to people around me. And no words will be enough to apologize for it."
The scandal surrounding the studyTwo articles about the new method of changing cells were published in January of this year in the authoritative British journal Nature.
The authors of the study, led by Obokata, claimed that they had found a relatively simple way to grow tissues of the required type from living cells. The discovery overnight made the 30-year-old Obokata a star of Japanese science. However, a few weeks later there were doubts about the effectiveness of the new method. In particular, attention was drawn to discrepancies in the illustrations and the text of the articles. In addition, some researchers tried to repeat Obokata's experiments, but were unable to obtain the same results.
The co–author of the sensational article, Doctor of Medical Sciences Yoshiki Sasai, committed suicide at the end of August. According to an analysis of the suicide notes of a 52-year-old employee of Riken, the cause of suicide was the hype raised around the incident in local and international media. "I am tired of unfair harassment in the media and responsibility for what is happening at the institute and laboratory," Sasai wrote in one of the notes. The scientist directly called the aggressive attitude of the press towards the research group unfair.
STAP cells are embryonic stem cells. During the initial experiment, the researchers placed blood cells in a slightly acidic solution of citric acid for half an hour and were surprised to find that the cells had a process of renewal and a return to their original young state. They called this new technique of creating stem cells "stimulated acquisition of pluripotency properties" (STAP), and it was immediately recognized as a cheaper, faster and more effective way than the previous ones to restore damaged tissues in heart and brain diseases. This path opened up the prospect of creating stem cells that could be injected into any patient to repair damaged organs and tissues without the risk of rejection.
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