(UPDATE 3) The story gets richer by the day. Now it's been found that Professor Charles Vacanti, head of Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the corresponding author of the Nature paper which he finally agreed to retract after just about everything in the paper was found to be more fantasy than reality, has been awarded US$700,000 grant from the Department of Defense via AxoGen, Inc., "the emerging leader of the $1.6 billion U.S. peripheral nerve repair market" according to the PR on June 4, 2014.
“I am excited about the potential to address challenging nerve repair cases through the use of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies,” said Vacanti
The US taxpayers are thrilled to fund his research, I suppose.
(UPDATE 2) Yomiuri and other papers reported on 6/5/2014 that Ms. Obokata's job application paper for Riken's position ("unit leader" with close to 100,000 dollars salary) was found to contain more copying and pasting - from her doctoral thesis which is itself full of copying and pasting and from patent applications submitted by Harvard University. It would be a surprise if there is anything, anything at all that this so-called researcher has ever produced without copying and pasting someone else's work.
(UPDATE) So it was a pressure exerted by Nature Magazine on Charles Vacanti. According to Asahi Shinbun (6/5/2014), Nature strongly suggested Vacanti agree to withdraw the papers (only Vacanti and Obokata were holding out) instead of Nature doing it without his consent. After Vacanti folded, Obokata folded.
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Fraud through and through, it seems to me.
The latest developments came on June 3, 2014, when NHK reported on two different investigations done on these so-called STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cells (which was originally to be called "princess cells" - princess woken up by a kiss from a prince, no less - by the lead author of the two papers accepted by Nature).
According to NHK News (6/3/2014):
- Genetic analysis of the cells created from STAP cells shows these cells were from the mice different from those supposedly used in the experiment detailed in the Nature papers.
- The cells were supposed to be created from "F1" mouse according to the Nature papers, but in fact they were from "B6" and "CD1" mouse.
- Cells from "B6" mouse are similar to "ES cells (embryonic stem cells)", and cells from "CD1" mouse are similar to "TS cells (trophoblast stem cells).
Ms. Obokata's secret recipe may have been to mix ES cells and TS cells cleverly. There was no STAP stem cell, there is no STAP stem cell, as even the magazine that published the two papers now admits.
And what is Riken going to do? Nothing. They have said they will continue their effort to recreate the experiment that supposedly created so-called STAP cells. Their best luck would be to mix ES cells and TS cells, just like the lead author (and probably the corresponding author Charles Vacanti) probably did. The top management of Riken seems eager to protect their star scientist Sasai, who was the mentor to Ms. Obokata and the promoter of her and her STAP cells, and shut down the investigation before it ensnares him.
Then today (6/4/21014), Nikkei Shinbun reports that Ms. Obokata has finally agree to retract the Nature paper, as well as the letter. NHK says the corresponding author Professor Charles Vacanti may now be willing to retract the paper.
About time to put this sorry saga to rest, but many net citizens (mostly males) in Japan continue to firmly believe it is some kind of a huge conspiracy by male-dominated research institutions and the national government to monopolize these so-called STAP cells. Poor little girl, they say.
The lead attorney assisting Ms. Obokata in dealing with Riken says she is still hospitalized and too weak (from unspecified illness, like some celebrities or politicians) and says she has probably been pressured by Riken to accept the retraction.
So far, there is no investigation by Harvard University and Nature Magazine. Waseda University, which conferred Obokata her doctoral degree, apparently does not understand what's wrong with copying and pasting without citations in writing a doctoral thesis.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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9 comments:
At a diner (we had downed some wine) I was told straight in the eyes : Men don't see female homesexuality. By a successfull, intelligent and inventive woman, a bit old already, long friend of our female host.
Women covertly smiled. Probably, they would also think of female duplicity.
(I like women, anyway)
Phyphy, for a change.
Homosexuality, of course, or on the contrary !
Ph.
You know, people say that she has a mental illness and that it is infectious. So you should not stay close to her. It seems it already affected some of the co-authors.
More seriously, these net-citizen should bear in mind, that if Obokata would have been a man, he would have already been axed many months ago. Just because she is a skirt wearing, cute heart drawing disgrace for science she is still clinging to her position, wasting tax-payers money.
You're still rambling on about this irrelevant story?
OT - about UK Nukeplants
Did you read this article at BBC Ex-SKF - 'Dungeness B nuclear plant operator wants safety limit raised' just follow the link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27691207
The essence is: 'A key safety limit at one of Britain's nuclear power stations is being raised to allow the life of the reactor to be extended'
I think in the not so distant future we will have to learn more about the design of 'Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR)' , when one of these British beauties starts spewing radiation...
It also shows that the nuclear village (Mafia) is everywhere the same.
If Obokata is supposed to be some sort of role model, it appears to lead to dissipation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/new-jersey-waitress-let-go-anti-gay_n_4412028.html
Seriously, did I miss the memo? Obokata declared she's a lesbian?
lol
Vyse, it may look irrelevant to you, not to me.
From the Soviet Union agriculture scientists who pretended to have an incredible yield, to historians who still pretend there was no mass-murder of Jews, a bit of science cleaning is needed.
BTW your google account is not very informative.
As for Obokata, who would give a f... about her sexuallity ?
She's an expert at making men dupes, and probably women too.
Thanks for writing about this. While it does not directly bear on the Fukushima disaster, it certainly provides another example of the corruption and ineptitude that pervade when science and government meet.
" .. and probably women too." And therein lies a story.
L-O-L
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