Opinion: iPS transplant work likely never occurred

The story in a major Japanese newspaper that iPS cells were transplanted into human patients has struck like lightning in the stem cell field.

While the facts surrounding this case are only now being revealed, my current opinion based on directly or indirectly getting feedback from experts is that the transplant work most likely never occurred.

I could be wrong about this and if I am I will immediately post about it, but the general gestalt in the stem cell field at this time is that these studies seem improbable at best.

As damaging as this potential scandal may be even if the work never happened, it would be far worse if patients had actually been put at risk in this way.

Let’s see what we all learn as the day goes on.