‘Breakthrough’ study retracted

A study released in February by scientists at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan, initially hailed as a breakthrough in stem cell research, has officially been retracted after errors in methodology emerged.

Following the study’s inclusion in the journal Nature, media outlets around the world reported that shocking skin cells with acid could turn them into stem cells. The findings suggested that stem cells would no longer need to be taken from embryos or created through costly and complicated genetic modification.

But in March, one of the study’s co-authors questioned the data used in the experiments and called for the results to be retracted, according to CNN. An investigation ensued, and now the researchers have officially withdrawn the study.

An editorial in Nature said, “errors were found in the figures, parts of the methods descriptions were found to be plagiarized and early attempts to replicate the work failed.”