The co-lead author of an olfactory paper retracted yesterday from Nature by Nobel laureate Linda Buck says he stands behind the conclusions and does not admit any wrongdoing. Zhihua Zou, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, wrote in a statement E-mailed to The Scientist by the University of Texas that he is "disappointed" by the retraction. In the retraction, Zou, who was a postdoc in Buck's lab at Harvard Medical School when the research was carried out, was listed as solely responsible for providing the irreproducible data and figures.
The associate director of public affairs at Harvard Medical School, David Cameron, told The Scientist that "there is a committee reviewing the issue right now." This committee will determine whether to escalate the review into a formal investigation, he said, although there is currently no timeline as to when this process will be completed.
The ...
