A Kyoto University investigation has found the first author of a 2017 Stem Cell Reports paper guilty of manipulating images, Retraction Watch reports.
The paper from researchers at Kyoto's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) described using cells generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells to model the blood-brain barrier. CiRA's Kohei Yamamizu is the first author.
According to a press release from Kyoto University, an investigation was instigated last September after questions arose regarding the validity of the paper's data and after a preliminary inquiry was unable to reproduce the figures using the original data. In a more in-depth investigation, the university found evidence that all six figures in the paper and five of the six in the supplementary materials contained fraudulent data. Yamamizu was the only author involved in the image manipulation, according to the investigation's findings.
Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka, the director of CiRA, has suggested that the might resign in the wake of the findings, ScienceInsider reports, though it adds that he likely won't. Yamanaka is not an author on the paper.
In a statement, Yamanaka says he is "saddened" by the research misconduct findings. "Kyoto University is now deliberating its punishment toward [Yamamizu], the professor who supervised the researcher, and myself," he adds.
The university says that the authors are seeking the paper's retraction.