Hematology studies retracted

Three papers on drug sensitivity in leukemia patients have been retracted from two journals after an anonymous tip to one of the publications revealed that a PhD student fudged immunofluorescence images. Francesca Messa, a student in the University of Turin laboratory of hematologist linkurl:Giuseppe Saglio,;http://www.multiwebcast.com/eha/2009/14th/speakers/37900/prof.giuseppe.saglio.biography.html admitted to "intentionally providing false confocal images," in a linkurl:retraction;http://www.

Written byBob Grant

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Francesca Messa, a student in the University of Turin laboratory of hematologist linkurl:Giuseppe Saglio,;http://www.multiwebcast.com/eha/2009/14th/speakers/37900/prof.giuseppe.saglio.biography.html admitted to "intentionally providing false confocal images," in a linkurl:retraction;http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/v24/n5/full/leu201064a.html published in April in the journal __Leukemia__. Specifically, Messa replaced confocal micrographs from one set of experiments with photos from another, unrelated, set of studies. Messa and her coauthors retracted two __Leukemia__ papers on resistance to chemotherapy in some leukemia patients -- linkurl:one;http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/v22/n6/abs/leu200868a.html published in a June 2008 issue and linkurl:another;http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/leu2009207a.html published in January 2010. A group of international authors that included Messa also linkurl:retracted;http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/full/115/14/2983-a? a December 2009 online linkurl:paper;http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/blood-2009-06-226621v1 this month from the journal __Blood__. "They were immunofluorescence images for different antigens and different leukemias," Cynthia Dunbar, editor-in-chief of the journal __Blood__, told __The Scientist__. Dunbar said that the fraud was discovered earlier this year when editors at __Blood__ received "an anonymous 12-page screed that came from Italy." That letter pointed to a particular figure depicting confocal micrographs of fluorescing cells in the __Blood__ paper, and pointed the journal's editors to the Leukemia papers, which contained the same images, cropped and magnified differently. All depicted the wrong cell lines and antibodies. "They basically used the same image and used it in several articles," Lucinda Haines, publishing manager at Leukemia, told __The Scientist__. Saglio told __The Scientist__ that he learned of the misconduct in his lab after hearing from __Blood__ editors. "I immediately went to see if this was true because I did not believe it," he said. But Saglio eventually would find that his PhD student, who was in charge of immunofluorescence in his lab, did put forward confocal microscopy images that did not correspond with the correct cell lines and fluorescing antibodies used in specific experiments for publication, changing legends and captions each time. Saglio added that Messa's sister, Emmanuela, a scientist who also worked in Saglio's lab and was a co-author on the retracted papers, tried to cover Francesca's tracks. "She tried to protect her," shuffling original confocal images into different folders in an apparent attempt to make it harder for Saglio to uncover her sister's fraud, he said. That fraud amounted to "embellishing" the results of the experiments, according to Saglio, but the broader conclusions of each of the three studies were unchanged. Still, he decided to retract all three studies. As of 1st June, the June 2008 __Leukemia__ paper had been cited 10 times, according to ISI. Though Messa ended up confessing that her manipulations were intentional, according to Saglio, "she didn't realize it was a very very big mistake." Dunbar noted that it would have been nearly impossible for __Blood__'s reviewers to catch the impropriety. "I can't fault the reviewers," she said, adding that they would have had to scan every single image in every other published study related to the work to notice the manipulations. Even then, she said, the published images weren't identical because it appeared that Messa went to some length to change attributes of the images -- such as borders and magnification. "There's just no possible way a reviewer would have picked this up." Both Messa sisters were recently fired from the University of Turin. "The two Messa sisters have left our lab," Saglio said, adding that he has not been in contact with either woman. The sisters were could not be reached for comment. Dunbar added that aside from ending Messa's scientific career, the retractions especially hurt the Saglio lab's collaborators. "It was really unfortunate for the collaborating group in Scotland," she said. "When you're doing group science, that's a risk you take." linkurl:Tessa Holyoake,;http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/cancersciences/haematology/research/professortessalholyoake/ a hematologist at the University of Glasgow who coauthored the retracted __Blood__ paper with Saglio's group, declined to comment.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:10 retractions and counting;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57449/
[26th May 2010]*linkurl:Fraud: who is responsible?;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57386/
[29th April 2010]*linkurl:Retracted: highly cited paper;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57380/
[26th April 2010]

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Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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