A Japanese research institute says a study that promised a revolutionary way to create stem cells should be quashed after claims its data was faulty, dealing a huge blow to what was touted as a game-changing discovery. Riken institute head, Ryoji Noyori, who jointly won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2001, also heaped criticism on lead researcher Haruko Obokata for her 'sloppiness' and warned the controversy could shake the public's faith in research. The findings, published by 30-year-old Obokata along with other Japanese researchers and a US-based scientist in the January edition of British journal 'Nature', outlined a relatively simple way to grow transplant tissue in the lab. But it faced hard questions as the respected institute, which sponsored the study, launched an inquiry last month over the credibility of its data used in the explosive findings. Among key concerns was that researchers used erroneous images - crucial to supporting the study - which resembled those used in Obokata's doctoral dissertation in 2011. 'I apologise that the papers which Riken researchers recently announced in Nature caused an incident that could hurt the credibility of the scientific community,' Noyori told a press briefing. 'This immature researcher handled and collected enormous … Continue reading →

Boston, Massachusetts (PRWEB) March 14, 2014 The Multiple System Atrophy Coalition has awarded a $50,000 grant to Dr. Vikram Khurana of Massachusetts General Hospital to develop a drug discovery platform for MSA using human patient-derived stem cell based models of the disease. The research project, entitled "Stem Cell-Based Therapeutics Platform for MSA" is set to begin in the second quarter of this year. I propose to develop stem cell-based models for MSA to look for signs of alpha-synuclein toxicity, the protein that aggregates in MSA and Parkinsons disease, stated Dr. Khurana. If found, we will assess whether we can reverse such phenotypes by genes and small molecules we uncovered in recent work on Parkinsons disease. I hope this work leads to a novel functional genomics and small molecule discovery platform for MSA. "As I transition to leading my own independent laboratory, I am committed to bringing to bear my training to develop a multidisciplinary clinical and research program focused specifically on MSA, continued Dr. Khurana. The data secured through this seed grant from the MSA Coalition will be critical to attract future federal NIH funding for this endeavor." Multiple system atrophy is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder affecting approximately … Continue reading →