Search Results for: Haruko Obokata

Did NHK Violate Rights of Obokata (小保方 晴子) on STAP?

Obokata-press-conference

The Japanese public broadcasting system, NHK, has been accused by scientist Haruko Obokata of violating her human rights. Obokata was the primary researcher involved in the STAP cell fiasco in which two ultimately retracted Nature papers contained duplicated, plagiarized, and manipulated data. She was certainly not the only researcher on those papers, but overall she […]

Did NHK Violate Rights of Obokata (小保方 晴子) on STAP? Read More »

Obokata Can’t Reproduce STAP Cells

Obokata-press-conference

Signaling a nightmare ending to what was originally a fairy tale scientific story, the Japanese press (e.g. here) are reporting that Haruko Obokata has herself been unable to make STAP cells again as part of a RIKEN team testing STAP under watchful supervision. In advance of a scheduled RIKEN press conference tomorrow, newspapers including Asahi Shimbun are

Obokata Can’t Reproduce STAP Cells Read More »

Obokata OKs Retraction of Nature STAP Cell Letter, Not Article

Obokata-press-conference

Japanese news media are reporting that Haruko Obokata and other key authors have agreed to retract the Nature STAP cell letter, but not the Nature article. This is a major development and a peculiar one because to many in the  field it is the Nature STAP cell article that is the more flawed of the two Nature papers on STAP. Why would

Obokata OKs Retraction of Nature STAP Cell Letter, Not Article Read More »

RIKEN rejects Obokata appeal on alleged STAP cell misconduct

Obokata-press-conference

A RIKEN committee has rejected an appeal by Dr. Haruko Obokata regarding its finding of research misconduct related to two papers in Nature claiming the production of so-called STAP cells and STAP stem cells. Earlier the committee had ruled that Obokata had allegedly engaged in misconduct and that there problems with the research. Obokata appealed

RIKEN rejects Obokata appeal on alleged STAP cell misconduct Read More »

Did Obokata get a fair shake on STAP cell mess?

Obokata-press-conference

Whether STAP cells are real or baloney, much went wrong with the actual STAP cell Nature papers and the research reported in them by Obokata and her co-authors. Who is responsible for these two deeply flawed papers? I’m not sure we have enough information at this time to know definitively how responsibility/blame should be apportioned,

Did Obokata get a fair shake on STAP cell mess? Read More »

RIKEN Report Is Virtual Acid Bath of Criticism for Obokata

si-Haruko

RIKEN Institute in Japan has formally announced the complete findings of its investigation into the STAP cell research,  Haruko Obokata, and Nature papers. RIKEN almost entirely blamed Obokata for the STAP mess in this report and they didn’t mince words. The RIKEN report alleged that Obokata had engaged in two instances of “research misconduct” as

RIKEN Report Is Virtual Acid Bath of Criticism for Obokata Read More »

Review of Obokata STAP cells Nature papers

STAP-stem-cells

In two Nature papers (here and here) published today researchers report the astounding finding of reprogramming differentiated cells back to a pluripotent or even totipotent state simply by exposing the cells to extreme environmental stress, creating cells they called STAP cells. Update: see more thoughts on STAP stem cells here. STAP cells: stressing the cell

Review of Obokata STAP cells Nature papers Read More »

Perspectives 10 years after STAP cells: the culture of science, misconduct, & hopes for progress

Haruko-Obokata-小保方-晴子-

Exactly ten years ago today, on January 29, 2014, I wrote about two new Nature papers on so-called STAP cells. The papers claimed that stress alone could convert regular non-stem cells into some of the most powerful stem cells. More specifically, the authors claimed to make pluripotent stem cells similar to iPS cells this way.

Perspectives 10 years after STAP cells: the culture of science, misconduct, & hopes for progress Read More »

Weekly reads: late Macchiarini retractions, stem cells & Lululemon

Paolo-Macchiarini

Paolo Macchiarini is one of a small group of people in the stem cell universe whose misconduct has blown up in the press. Piero Anversa, Haruko Obokata, Hwang Woo-Suk, and some operators in the unproven stem cell clinic sphere come to mind. Macchiarini published quite a few seriously problematic papers, some of which just hung

Weekly reads: late Macchiarini retractions, stem cells & Lululemon Read More »