Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon.

The article reports on efforts by seven scientific laboratories to replicate the findings of a study of stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells, which was published in “Nature” in 2014 and later retracted. The article reports that the STAP stem-cell line discussed in the 2014 article was contaminated by embryonic stem (ES) cells. The authors call for validation of the properties and the origin of pluripotent stem cells using different scientific methods in future STAP research.