A new twist in the STAP story: Scientist declared guilty

The perplexing case of the STAP cell research, which caught the world’s attention, continues to remain in the news. You can read the entire story in brief here. In a new development on April 1, 2014, the research institute Riken announced that Dr. Haruko Obokata was found guilty of misconduct. Dr. Obokata, who shot to fame with her research on producing stem cells from ordinary cells using simple laboratory procedures, was accused of manipulating and fabricating data. Riken appointed an investigative committee to probe the matter, and its chariman, Shunsuke Ishii, publicly declared that “Obokata alone is responsible for the misconduct.”

Dr. Obokata reported her findings in two papers published in the journal Nature. Out of the six problems the committee considered, only four were dismissed as purely accidental. In two cases, however, the committee found evidence that Dr. Obokata’s data was “fragmentary and not dated,” amounting to deliberate misconduct. Along with this, the researcher was found to have reused an image from her doctoral thesis. While Dr. Obokata maintains that she had added the image mistakenly, the committee noted that captions on the image had been changed, which indicated data manipulation.

While the panel’s decision regarding the case will be reviewed before the final verdict, Riken institute’s Director, Ryoji Noyori, stated that he intends to “rigorously punish relevant people after procedures in a disciplinary committee.” He also hinted that the papers would be retracted if the committee's judgment was upheld at appeal. In the meanwhile, Dr. Obokata has issued the following statement: "I will file a complaint against Riken as it's absolutely impossible for me to accept this.”

Although the controversy over the STAP cell research has taken the scientific community by storm, questions are being raised about the way Dr. Obokata is being treated. Expressing her views regarding the case, Prof Fiona Watt, the director of the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King's College London said, "I'm outside this field but the whole process of the investigation and the conclusions have come out very quickly. I don't condone fraudulent research in any way, but I do think that senior scientists have a duty of care to their younger colleagues, and I hope that Dr. Obokata will not be treated as a scapegoat." There have even been talks about whether gender discrimination has any role in the way the events are unfolding.

Interestingly, the committee’s announcement came just before scientists in Hong Kong said they had partly succeeded in reproducing the controversial experiment. Post this development, discussions abound over the existence of STAP cells and whether Dr. Obokata is indeed guilty of fabricating data. Dr. Obokata’s stance, Riken’s announcement, and the indication of reproducibility of STAP cells together suggest that more developments can be expected.

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