In Japanese society and the global scientific community, the cloning research fraud has been raging again. According to Kyodo News, this morning, one of the authors of the fake paper, the deputy director of the comprehensive research center of occurrence and regeneration science of Japan Institute of Physical Chemistry, committed suicide.
In January this year, Japanese beauty scientist Haruko Kobao published two Nobel Prize-winning papers in Nature magazine, claiming to have discovered a brand-new method of adult animal somatic cell cloning. Sakai Yoshiki is the boss of Xiao Baofang Haruko and the co-author of the paper. However, the paper was later found to be fraudulent, and was rejected by Nature magazine, which became the biggest scandal in the international scientific community after the fraudulent incident of Hwang Woo-suk, the father of Korean cloning in 2005. Xiao Baofang Haruko himself has always refused to admit the research fraud, insisting that the experimental results are true, and only apologizes for the mistakes in citing pictures in the paper. However, the academic circles generally don’t believe Kohokata’s excuse, and the authors of the papers, including Kohokata, are under great pressure, and Sakai Yoshiki is also regarded as the main person responsible for the whole incident.
Sakai Yoshiki (middle) and Xiao Baofang Haruko (left)
Suicide of key figures in fraud scandal
Japan’s Kyodo News reported on the morning of August 5th that Sakai Yoshiki (52 years old), deputy director of the Comprehensive Research Center of Occurrence and Regeneration Science of Japan Institute of Physical Chemistry, hanged himself in the center in Kobe today. Hyogo police subsequently confirmed his death.
According to the police in Hyogo Prefecture, Sakai hanged himself after hanging a rope on the stair handrail of the research building of the research center. The police received an alarm call at 9 o’clock in the morning.
Sakai is the mentor of Xiao Baofang Haruko (30 years old), the academic leader of scientific research who wrote STAP cell papers. In January this year, he and Kohokata attended a press conference to announce the research results. At that time, STAP cells were regarded as new universal cells. After the paper was pointed out that there were violations, Sasakawa still stressed that STAP cells might exist.
Plagiarism of beauty researchers
At the end of January this year, Haruko Kobao of Japan Institute of Physical Chemistry and others published two heavy papers in the field of stem cell research in Nature, claiming that a new type of "universal cell" STAP cells can be obtained by simply stimulating somatic cells with acid bath or applying physical stress. These cells have the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, and they can also form self-renewing stem cell lines after further operation.
This is the third method for obtaining animal embryonic stem cells, which is published after the research team of Japanese scientist shinya yamanaka and China Tsinghua University. Shinya yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for his discovery several years ago, and the preparation method of STAP is simpler.
However, in March this year, one of the co-authors of the paper, Akihiko Wakayama of Yamanashi University, asked the first author of the paper, Haruko Kobao, to provide him with STAP cells prepared from mouse cells of a certain strain. However, after a simple genetic analysis of the cells, Akihiko Wakayama found that the stem cells given to him by Haruko Kobao were prepared from mouse cells of other strains. This indicates that these cells may be contaminated.
The controversy over Xiaobaofang Haruko’s research on alleged fraud began. On April 1st this year, after investigation, the Japanese Institute of Physical Chemistry announced that the first author of the paper, Xiao Baofang Haruko, director of the research office of the Developmental Biology Center (CDB) of the Institute of Physical Chemistry, had academic misconduct such as fabrication and tampering. Although the co-authors have no academic misconduct, they are also "responsible" for failing to play a gatekeeper role. Since then, Nature has also withdrawn two papers.
As the reporter stared at all the papers published by researcher Kohokata so far, it was found that there were obvious plagiarism marks in her doctoral thesis submitted to Waseda University three years ago, and 20 of the 109 pages of papers were completely copied from the public papers of an American research institute. Moreover, the photos used in the doctoral thesis are completely consistent with the photos of this universal cell experiment, which were copied from the website of a biological company.
This incident has caused a great condemnation of academic fraud in the global academic circles, and the Japanese government has also begun to purge its own scientific community. On April 14th, at the highest science policy organization in Japan — — At the meeting held by the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSPT), an eight-member committee group called for the establishment of academic integrity of researchers, and called for the establishment of a series of prevention and response measures against academic fraud at the institutional level to rebuild public confidence in science.
Xiao baofang haruko apologized for the falsification of the paper.
Kohokata was exposed to consider suicide.
On April 9 this year, Xiao Baofang Haruko was forced to face the public on the issue of fraud. 30-year-old Xiao Baofang Haruko cried tears in front of hundreds of reporters at a news conference recorded on TV, but she insisted that she did not tamper with the data to falsify the experimental results.
She claimed that she didn’t agree to withdraw the research, saying that she had "confirmed this fact many times" and vowed that if she was allowed to return to any laboratory, she would prove that what she said was true.
Kohokata only apologized for citing several incorrect pictures in his paper and modifying one picture in the report. She said that her mistakes were lack of experience and poor academic skills, and she called on her colleagues to continue the research.
Kohokata said that he was opposed to withdrawing the paper published in the journal Nature, because it would give the international academic community the impression that the research was incorrect.
She also said at the press conference, "I can’t sleep well every day and my mood is getting worse." Some reporters even reported that in the face of unanimous accusations from the academic circles, Kohokata may be hard-headed, and may have the possibility of self-injury or suicide.
Sakai Yoshiki is behind the scenes?
Xiao Baofang Haruko also has many sympathizers. It was pointed out that there were eight authors in the fake papers, and the real main publication was not researcher Kohokata, but Fang Shu Sasui, deputy director of the Comprehensive Research Center for Regenerative Science of the Institute of Physical Chemistry.
Some media pointed out that since Professor shinya yamanaka of Kyoto University won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his successful research on IPS cells, Japanese national attention has been focused on Professor Yamanaka. According to the research results, Professor Yamanaka’s achievements are far more than those of Sakai Fangshu. As an important expert in this field, he is definitely uncomfortable. In order to compete with Professor Yamanaka, the Institute of Physical Chemistry decided to launch the "Beauty Scientist" route in Kohokata to compete with Professor Yamanaka. Moreover, there is competition in the Institute of Physical Chemistry, and the research funding will be cut without certain achievements.
Hastily announcing immature results and finally failing is also the best explanation for this commotion. Poor researcher Kohokata has been criticized by Japanese researchers all over the country. As a result, she can’t do any more research, because her image is not good, and there will be no co-researchers. Even if she publishes it alone, no one will be interested in her. Now, only the existence of STAP cells is definitely proved, which is the best means to bring them back to life.
Some media even claimed that the relationship between Sakai Yoshiki and Xiao Baofang Haruko was ambiguous. Because after graduating from Haruko University, Xiaobaofang has a much smoother career path than graduates from many other famous universities. I got a five-year researcher’s contract with the Institute of Physical Chemistry very early, and was sent to Harvard University for research with the support of a scholarship. Come back and become a researcher of the project.
Although Sakai Yoshiki has a wife and a family, she is particularly close to Xiao Baofang Haruko. Some people say that they saw the two of them making out in the research room. So many people are saying that this research scandal is not only academic fraud, but also the shadow of erotic trading and interest trading.