HARUKO OBOKATALast year, two Nature papers in which researchers reported having created pluripotent stem cells by stressing differentiated mouse cells were published, questioned, and subsequently retracted. The confusion led to multiple misconduct investigations and a media firestorm, and reportedly contributed to the death of one of the studies’ authors. A set of papers published today (September 23) in Nature brings to light additional details regarding the controversial stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency—or STAP—research.
In their original articles (published in January 2014; retracted in July 2014), lead author Haruko Obokata of Japan’s RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology and her colleagues reported that exposure to an acid bath could reprogram mature cells into pluripotent STAP cells. Within weeks, other researchers reported difficulty reproducing the published protocols. (Obokata resigned from RIKEN in December 2014.)
As it turns out, contamination of the supposed STAP cells with embryonic stem cells may have been in part to blame. In one of the Nature commentaries published today, researchers from RIKEN and the Tokyo Institute of Technology examined this aspect of the STAP reproducibility problem.
“The publication and retraction of STAP papers strongly influenced the national scientific community, especially the stem-cell community. We felt that we ...
