Search Results for: nature

Mitalipov Nature pub review: IPSC & SCNT for mitochondrial disease

Mitalipov-IPSC-paper

In a new, thought-provoking paper today in Nature, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and a multi-institutional team report a significant advance toward potential novel ways to treat mitochondrial diseases. What are these illnesses? Mitochondrial diseases are rare, but devastating disorders caused by genetic mutations. Today they are largely impossible to treat in meaningful ways other than palliative care. Some …

Mitalipov Nature pub review: IPSC & SCNT for mitochondrial disease Read More »

Nature Biased News Coverage of 3-Person IVF

Screen-Shot-2015-02-13-at-1.02.20-PM

NatureNews is a science news outlet so I’ve been wondering what the heck the deal is with their strongly biased news coverage of the mitochondrial transfer 3-person IVF technology debate. By way of context, I like NatureNews and am a regular reader, but their coverage of the mitochondrial transfer debate has been completely one-sided and inaccurate. Their …

Nature Biased News Coverage of 3-Person IVF Read More »

STAP papers blistered by Nature’s own reviewers were then accepted

STAP-magic

The reviews of a STAP paper submitted to and rejected by the journal Science in 2012 were posted at Retraction Watch yesterday. They filled in some gaps in the puzzle of the series of events that led to such flawed science being published in Nature in January 2014, but the reviews also raised more questions. Today, more STAP paper …

STAP papers blistered by Nature’s own reviewers were then accepted Read More »

Could Nature’s 2-year torrent of paper retractions be a good thing?

Nature

The last two years at Nature Magazine have seen a surprising wave of paper retractions. In 2013 and now just so far in 2014, Nature has retracted a total of 14 papers. How unusual is that? Historically, Nature retracts relatively few papers, perhaps just under two per year on average. What the heck has been going on in 2013-2014? Let’s break it …

Could Nature’s 2-year torrent of paper retractions be a good thing? Read More »

Interview with Nature on their editorial process in wake of STAP

Nature

I asked Nature a half dozen questions about their editorial process. While they declined to answer any direct questions about the STAP cell paper situation, I thank them for answering these questions via a Nature spokesperson. The end result is an intriguing glimpse inside the editorial/review process at Nature. 1. Does Nature have any kind …

Interview with Nature on their editorial process in wake of STAP Read More »

Review of Mitalipov Nature paper: cloned ES cells vs iPS cells

NT-ESC

Just how good are human embryonic stem (ES) cells made by therapeutic cloning via nuclear transfer, with the successful technique first reported by the lab of Shoukhrat Mitalipov at OHSU last year? How do they compare to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells or traditional ES cells made from IVF embryos? A new paper in Nature directly tackles these …

Review of Mitalipov Nature paper: cloned ES cells vs iPS cells Read More »

Perspectives on STAP cell Nature paper retractions

STAP-stem-cells-hope-or-mirage

The Obokata STAP cell papers in Nature were retracted today. It feels like it’s been a long time coming in one way as for months now it has felt like retraction was inevitable, but it’s been extraordinarily fast in another way as retractions almost never happen this fast. It’s a day of mixed feelings. This …

Perspectives on STAP cell Nature paper retractions 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 »

Past Time for Nature to Retract STAP Cell Pubs, Open up on Review Problems

natures-misstap

Two stem cell papers riddled with errors, with figures that resulted from potential misconduct, with plagiarism, and with other serious problems remain uncorrected and unretracted in the prestigious journal Nature. It is well past time for the journal to editorially retract them. It was about four months ago that Nature published the two astonishing STAP papers reporting the …

Past Time for Nature to Retract STAP Cell Pubs, Open up on Review Problems Read More »

Cloning is cloned again: New Nature Paper is 3rd on Human SCNT

Yamada-Extended-Data-SCNT

A new human therapeutic cloning paper is out today, the third in a matter of months. This one is from the lab group of Dr. Dieter Egli published in Nature demonstrating production of nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells (NT-ESCs) from an adult human somatic donor via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This human SCNT paper follows …

Cloning is cloned again: New Nature Paper is 3rd on Human SCNT Read More »