A Japanese scientist was accused Tuesday of fabricating stem cell research that was considered a breakthrough in the medical field.
The Riken Center panel is leading the investigation against lead researcher Dr. Haruko Obokata, who they say is guilty of scientific misconduct.
Obokata's two papers, published in the journal Nature in January, detail a simple way to replace damaged cells or grow new organs in humans using stem cells. The research may have been too good to be true as Riken, a government-funded research institute, pointed out irregularities in data and images used in the papers.
"Actions like this completely destroy data credibility," Shunsuke Ishii, head of the Riken committee, told a news conference, BBC News reported. "There is no doubt that she was fully aware of this danger."
Obokata, 30, refers to the embryonic-like cells in her team's research by the term Stimulus-Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency, or STAP, cells. Obokata and colleagues reached this cell state by subjecting blood and skin cells to extreme stress via trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments. Riken plans to verify the existence of STAP cells, led by Riken President Ryoji Noyori.
There were high hopes that the technique was a cheap and ethical means of producing stem cells, but experts say no other research group can reproduce Obokata's results.
"Given the poor quality of her laboratory notes it has become clearly evident that it will be extremely difficult for anyone else to accurately trace or understand her experiments," the panel wrote in their final report, The Wall Street Journal said.
Obokata will soon challenge the panel's allegations against her, saying that Riken's complaints are not only false but also appalling.
"I'm filled with shock and indignation," she said in a statement, according to Reuters. "If things stay as they are, misunderstanding could arise that the discovery of stap [stem] cells itself is forgery. That would be utterly unacceptable."
Riken has not decided what penalty may be imposed on the researcher if the accusations prove correct.
