More murky data and allegations of falsified results from the stem cell world, this time from an alternative to embryonic stem cells. Back in 2001, a research at the University of Minnesota, Catherine Verfaillie, published a paper in the leading journal Blood, which suggested that certain rare bone marrow stem cells might have all the versatility of embryonic stem cells. This was followed by another paper in Nature.

At the time, these discoveries became bullets in the stem cell debate, with opponents of destructive embryo research claiming that adult stem cells offered even more hope than embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately other researchers had trouble reproducing her results and suspicions were raised about Verfaillie’s data. After a lengthy investigation, the University has determined that several images had been deliberately falsified. It blamed a former graduate student, Dr Morayma Reyes, now an assistant professor at the University of Washington. Dr Verfaillie was censured for inadequate oversight. The University has asked for the paper in Blood to be retracted.

Compared to other scandals, this is fairly inconsequential. Dr Reyes admits that she altered the images by adjusting brightness and contrast, but says that this was accepted practice at the time. And subsequent research has corroborated Verfaillie’s work. A biotech company in Cleveland, Athersys, has begun a clinical trials on leukaemia patients. But her stem cells may have been a dead end, in any case. More interest nowadays is being paid to reprogrammed stem cells. ~ Pioneer Press, Oct 19; AP, Oct 7