Third Retraction for Harvard Cancer Biologist

The move follows two major corrections to a 2011 Nature paper, in which researchers demonstrated that a natural compound selectively kills cancer cells.

Written byKatarina Zimmer

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ABOVE: The long pepper plant produces piperlongumine, a compound several studies, including the retracted one, found to selectively kill cancer cells.
ISTOCK, VARAPORN_CHAISIN

Nature has issued a retraction of a cancer study today (July 25), seven years after its publication, citing issues with two figures and the unavailability of original data for them.

“There were clearly multiple oversights with regard to what was being done [in this study] and how it was being vetted,” says cancer biologist William Murphy, professor and chair of dermatology and internal medicine at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study.

The paper, led by Harvard Medical School biologist Sam Lee, is among several publications from his group to be retracted. Molecular Cell and the Journal of Biological Chemistry have each withdrawn one of Lee’s studies in recent years due to “inappropriately assembled” data and figure manipulation, respectively. In addition, Current Biology ...

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Meet the Author

Katarina Zimmer
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After a year teaching an algorithm to differentiate between the echolocation calls of different bat species, Katarina decided she was simply too greedy to focus on one field of science and wanted to write about all of them. Following an internship with The Scientist in 2017, she’s been happily freelancing for a number of publications, covering everything from climate change to oncology. Katarina is a news correspondent for The Scientist and contributes occasional features to the magazine. Find her on Twitter @katarinazimmer and read her work on her website.
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