Stem cell research: is storing your baby's umbilical cord a sound investment or a pricey frill? Umbilical cord blood holds precious stem cells and at some Swiss university hospitals, mothers can freely donate their baby's supply to research. But, some l... By: swissinfo.ch videos … Continue reading →

A blockbuster study in which US researchers reported that they had turned human skin cells into embryonic stem cells contained errors, its lead author has acknowledged. Shoukhrat Mitalipov nevertheless adamantly stood by the conclusions of the study published last week in journal Cell, which reported that human stem cell lines for the first time had been created via cloning. The journal Nature contacted Mitalipov after an anonymous online critic on PubPeer spotted four separate problems in the paper. In an interview with Nature, Mitalipov confirmed that three errors were made in the rush to publish -- but denied the fourth issue raised was an error and said the overall conclusions were unaffected. "The results are real, the cell lines are real, everything is real," said Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton. "I personally made the cells," he said. "I saw them grow into colonies." He blamed the errors on his rush to publish the research, which he hoped to present next month at the International Society for Stem Cell Research meeting. "Maybe it was rushed," he said. "It was my mistake." Mitalipov said his research team will be issuing an erratum correcting … Continue reading →

Once again, controversy is swirling around a paper describing human embryonic stem cells created by cloning. Just over a week ago, researchers led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton announced their success in achieving the feat. It was the culmination of a quest that had frustrated the field since 2005, when a previous claim to have produced cloned human stem cells, made by a team led by Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea, was shown to be fraudulent. Now Mitalipov's work is itself under scrutiny, after anonymous scientists noted online that his paper contains duplicated and mislabelled images and plots. "This is really like dj vu all over again," says Arnold Kriegstein, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. To be clear, no one is suggesting that Mitalipov's group is guilty of fraud. But given that the paper was accepted for publication by the journal Cell within four days of being submitted, the incident is drawing attention to the errors that can occur when scientists and journals race to get exciting research findings into print. "In my view, this is a typical problem when you rush … Continue reading →

The researchers claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells from human skin tissue The lead author of what has been described as milestone stem cell research published last week has admitted mistakes were made in the rush to get the paper published. The researchers claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells from human skin tissue. Allegations were made by a contributor to scientific peer review website PubPeer. It was claimed that there were issues of concern with a number of images in the presentation of the study in the respected international academic journal Cell. The claim was subsequently brought to the attention of the Massachusetts-based biology biweekly publication, which responded on Twitter by saying its editorial team was currently assessing the allegations. However, the paper's lead author, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, has told the science journal Nature that there are three innocent mistakes in the paper made during the rush to publish. He said he takes responsibility for the mistakes. However, questions are now being raised about the journal's three-day time scale from submission to acceptance of the paper, given the controversy that surrounds the issue of cloning. Dr Mitalipov, from the Oregon Health and Science University, admitted to Nature … Continue reading →

Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov stands outside the monkey enclosure at his lab in Oregon. He says the mistakes in his recent paper were caused by the rush to publish quickly. Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov stands outside the monkey enclosure at his lab in Oregon. He says the mistakes in his recent paper were caused by the rush to publish quickly. This feels a bit like deja vu. Scientists report a major breakthrough in human stem-cell research. And then just a week later, the findings come under fire. Biologists at Oregon Health & Science University said May 15 that they had cloned human embryos from a person's skin cell. Researchers have been trying to do this for more than a decade. Many scientists in the field were heralding the announcement as discovery of the Holy Grail because now they could make personalized stem cells for treating an array of diseases. But several images in the paper aren't quite right, a commenter said Wednesday on the website PubPeer. Specifically, three pairs of photos are duplicated and then labeled as different results. There are also some questions about data demonstrating that the scientists had created stem cells. The lead author on the study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, … Continue reading →