Once upon a time this blog and major outlets around the world were regularly writing about a Japanese stem cell researcher named Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子). Whatever happened to Obokata and the other folks directly involved in STAP cell research? First, a bit of background because maybe still a few people never heard of STAP cells and Obokata or forgot the key points behind the controversy. Haruko Obokata became well known because of her research claiming to make pluripotent stem cells like IPS cells without …Read More
Search Results for: Haruko Obokata
Haruko Obokata is most well-known for her role as first author of the now retracted two STAP cell Nature papers. These manuscripts claimed to have made pluripotent and even totipotent stem cells simply by stressing cells out with acid treatment or in other ways. Nobody else could get this method to work to create the so-called STAP cells. It was an all around scientific disaster and I don’t know anyone who believes that STAP cells are real, but Obokata and another one of her mentors, …Read More
Even as the book of Haruko Obokata (小保方 晴子) had been fading in popularity on Amazon Japan (update: it is now increasing again), there is some other news with her as she has launched a new website. The website, STAP Hope Page, seems to often not work now, but you can also see it here via Wayback Machine. Hat tip to several readers and people on Twitter including Buvery and Bob Geller. JIJI Press has confirmed that the site is real as some had speculated it …Read More
Haruko Obokata wrote a book about the STAP cell scandal telling it from her perspective. Fom all accounts I’ve seen, she has sought in her writings to shift the blame away from herself. She even claimed she was framed by other scientists. To say I’m skeptical would be an understatement. Will this book have any impact? Many scientists thought it would make a splash and then fade away. Not so, at least so far. At present Obokata’s book is the #1 best-selling book on …Read More