A University of Cambridge researcher — Steve Jackson — and a former researcher at the University of Bristol — Abderrahmane Kaidi — have accomplished a two-fer: Retracting a paper in Nature, and one in Science, on the same day.
In September of last year, the BBC reported that Kaidi was resigning “after admitting that he fabricated his research.” The Times reported that “Dr Kaidi’s admission came during a separate inquiry into complaints about his treatment of colleagues.” The university told the BBC at the time:
The fabricated data was not intended for publication and will not be published.
No specific concerns were raised in the investigation about other publications during Dr Kaidi’s time at the University of Bristol.
The University of Cambridge, however, seems to have felt differently about work Kaidi did in collaboration with Jackson at Cambridge and published in Science 2010. Jackson was corresponding author of both now-retracted papers, while Kaidi was first author of both.
Hundreds of citations
The Science paper — which earned an expression of concern in September — has been cited 240 times, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science. Its retraction notice reads:
After an investigation, the University of Cambridge has concluded that there was falsification of research data used in the Report “Human SIRT6 promotes DNA end resection through CtIP deacetylation” (1), which was the subject of an Editorial Expression of Concern in September 2018 (2). The investigation concluded that the first author, Abderrahmane Kaidi, was responsible for the falsification of the data. In agreement with the recommendation of the investigation, the authors are retracting the Report.
The Nature paper, “KAT5 tyrosine phosphorylation couples chromatin sensing to ATM signalling,” has been cited 119 times. Its retraction notice reads:
The authors are retracting this Article to correct the scientific literature, owing to issues with figure presentation and underlying data. The authors cannot confirm the results in the affected figures and thus wish to retract the Article in its entirety. Both authors, Abderrahmane Kaidi and Stephen P. Jackson, agree with the Retraction.
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Two big, highly cited papers…. gone. And will there be any repercussions for for either Abderrahmane or Stephen (besides Kaidi resigning to avoid the investigation)?
Will Kidis funding and awards be returned/stripped?
And will we learn details of HOW this was allowed to happen, twice?
Seems something is seriously wrong in such a large well funded group, if this can occur, twice.
And its not like they came forward, this was uncovered.
That’s the nature of Science or the Nature of science ?
I love that! “the fabricated data was not intended for publication…..”
The what was it intended for? A grant application? Well, that’s OK then. /s
Well, fabricated data could be useful for developing analysis methods, for example. Though in that case one would usually call the data ‘simulated’ rather than ‘fabricated’…
What in the world could Kaidi have been thinking of when he started on this journey of deception?
His next grant.
“I’ll do well”.
Cell Cycle
. 2013 Feb 15;12(4):698-704. doi: 10.4161/cc.23592. Epub 2013 Jan 23.
ATM-dependent phosphorylation of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K promotes p53 transcriptional activation in response to DNA damage
Abdeladim Moumen 1, Christine Magill, Katherine L Dry, Stephen P Jackson
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.4161/cc.23592
Affiliation
1
DNA Damage Response Group; Basic Medical Science Department; St. George’s University of London; London, UK;
2
The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon
Institute; and Department of Biochemistry; Cambridge University; Cambridge, UK
PMID: 23343766 PMCID: PMC3594270 DOI: 10.4161/cc.23592
Figure 1A. Much more similar than expected.
https://imgur.com/n29ecKu
Figure 3B.
Rightmost lanes hnRNP K and Tubulin panels (irradiated lanes) look like they have been added on.
Splice in hnRNP panel, but no splice in p21/WAF1 panel.
Band rightmost Tubulin lane is a step down compared with all the other bands in that panel and there is no general background.
https://imgur.com/pqZ7FpM
Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032.
hnRNP K: an HDM2 target and transcriptional coactivator of p53 in response to DNA damage
Abdeladim Moumen 1, Philip Masterson, Mark J O’Connor, Stephen P Jackson
Affiliation
1The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom.
PMID: 16360036 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032
Figure 1. Much more similar than expected.
https://imgur.com/epNAV3x
Continuation Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032.
hnRNP K: an HDM2 target and transcriptional coactivator of p53 in response to DNA damage
Abdeladim Moumen 1, Philip Masterson, Mark J O’Connor, Stephen P Jackson
Affiliation
1The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom.
PMID: 16360036 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032
Figures 1E, 1F, and 3A. Much more similar than expected, although the conditions, cells are different.
https://imgur.com/7Ag0NEG
Even more problematic data Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032.
hnRNP K: an HDM2 target and transcriptional coactivator of p53 in response to DNA damage
Abdeladim Moumen 1, Philip Masterson, Mark J O’Connor, Stephen P Jackson
Affiliation
1The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom.
Problematic data.
Figure 4A.
Horizontal flip WB/alpha-HDM2 very similar to Tub WB figures 1E, 1F and 3A, and also similar to WB/alpha-K in figure 7A.
See: https://imgur.com/3DFoh8I
Problematic data.
A small aside: figure 7B doesn’t look quite right either.
See: https://imgur.com/Nn8pT9B
Data in
1. Cancer Cell. 2009 Mar 3;15(3):171-83. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2009.01.01
from
2. Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78.
Cancer Cell. 2009 Mar 3;15(3):171-83. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2009.01.01
MDM2-dependent downregulation of p21 and hnRNP K provides a switch between apoptosis and growth arrest induced by pharmacologically activated p53MDM2-Dependent Downregulation of p21 and hnRNP K Provides a Switch between Apoptosis and Growth Arrest Induced by Pharmacologically Activated p53 (cell.com)
Martin Enge,1 Wenjie Bao,1 Elisabeth Hedstro¨ m,1 Stephen P. Jackson,2 Abdeladim Moumen,2,3 and Galina Selivanova1,*
1Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
2The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, UK
3Basic Medical Science, St. George’s University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK
*Correspondence: galina.selivanova@ki.sepmid: 19249676 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2009.01.019
Problematic data.
Data figure 4D Cancer Cell. 2009 Mar 3;15(3):171-83 from multiple figures Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78, even though the experimental conditions are different.
See: https://imgur.com/k8OJW8U
FYI:
Cell. 2005 Dec 16;123(6):1065-78. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032.
hnRNP K: an HDM2 target and transcriptional coactivator of p53 in response to DNA damage
Abdeladim Moumen 1, Philip Masterson, Mark J O’Connor, Stephen P Jackson
Affiliation
1The Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute and Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom.
PMID: 16360036 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2005.09.032