WIKIMEDIA, STEAKPINBALLA well-respected biochemist and rising star at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has retracted an important paper after an internal investigation found that her former postdoc faked the figures, reported Retraction Watch.
Alice Ting, named one of Technology Review’s “Innovators Under 35” in 2006, published the paper in question—which demonstrated a new way to image the mechanisms of synapse formation in the brain—in Cell in 2010. The first author was postdoc Amar Thyagarajan.
The paper was well-received, and Autism Speaks, which funded Thyagarajan’s postdoc, declared that “the ability to observe the active development of synapses will undoubtedly factor into future discoveries, paying dividends for some time to come.” The paper has since been cited 17 times, according to ISI Web of Knowledge
But yesterday (February 14), Cell retracted the paper. The accompanying notice explained that when Ting’s group discovered they could not reproduce the results, MIT started an investigation. Detailing the findings of that investigation in a ...
