Interim CNRS President Removed, Faces Data Manipulation Allegations

Anne Peyroche has been acting president of the French science organization since last October.

| 1 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00
Share

ISTOCK, DNY59Biologist Anne Peyroche is no longer interim president of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), one of the largest research organizations in France. She was removed last Thursday (January 18) from the post. In recent months, concerns have emerged that figures in some of her papers have been manipulated, although it’s not clear whether those allegations are related to her replacement. Computer scientist Antoine Petit has taken her place, according to the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation.

Evidence of possible data manipulation in Peyroche’s papers was first published last November on PubPeer, a website that lets users critique published research. Five articles that she coauthored between 2001 and 2012 are criticized on the site.

Peyroche and her colleagues responded to two of the threads, but the criticisms were serious enough for a committee at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) to seek more information from the researchers. A panel of reviewers was set up to hear clarifications from the papers’ coauthors in early January, Le Monde reports. That process was disrupted by the announcement of Petit succeeding Peyroche.

It’s not clear whether Peyroche’s replacement was premature. Benoît Le Tallec, first author of two of the papers in question, had ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide