LONDON ¨C Two stem cell papers published by a team of Japanese and U.S. scientists in the influential journal Nature have been officially retracted due to ¡°several critical errors,¡± the journal said on Wednesday.
The research was described as game-changing by many experts in the field when it was published in January. However, it was subsequently investigated by the Japanese government-affiliated Riken institute, which ¡°categorized some of the errors as misconduct,¡± Nature said.
The two papers, led at Riken by Haruko Obokata, 30, detailed simple ways to reprogram mature animal cells back to an embryonic-like state, allowing them to generate many different types of cells ¡ª suggesting hope for a way of replacing damaged cells or growing new organs in humans.
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