Search

The article discusses research efforts on transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that were compromised by contamination with tumor cells being used in other studies. Consequently, one research paper was retracted and another one was corrected. Cell biologist Rolf Bjerkvig, who led one of the studies, is cited regarding his reaction to the error and addressing it.

This article reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity in September found physician Xiaowu Li guilty of scientific misconduct for passing off images of mouse melanoma cells as human pancreatic cancer cells in a paper published online March 2004 in the journal "Carcinogenesis." Li was working under cancer researcher Daniel Ramos at the University of California, San Francisco. Ramos says that he was unaware of the publication, which Li wrote with a group of researchers in China, and was initially upset that he hadn't been asked to be a co-author. But once he recognized the false images, which were taken from his own lab, he contacted university officials. Ramos says the results of other experiments he performed with Li appear to be valid. Li told him during the investigation that the pressure to compile an impressive research record drove him to commit misconduct.