Schneider Shorts of 17 November 2023 – a sexual harasser comes to Prague, cover-ups in London and Florence, with a Dutch scam, many retractions, Alzheimer’s infectively uncorked, and finally, another Alzheimer’s superstar exposed as a fraud.

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Science Elites

This brilliant scientist has been punished enough

Guess who has a new job.

David Sabatini. The sacked, litigious, lying sexual predator and research cheater who published massive fraud.

In my favourite city no less. In Czechia’s capital, Prague.

Boston Globe reported on 13 November 2023:

“Sabatini, of Cambridge, confirmed in a phone call from Prague that he has accepted a position as a “senior group leader” at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, known as IOCB Prague. Sabatini said he will be recruiting staff and running a laboratory in the Czech Republic capital to investigate scientific questions in the areas of cell growth and metabolism, similar to his past research in Cambridge.

“I’m very grateful to be given the opportunity to do science again,” said Sabatini,who began working at the institute last month. […] Sabatini, 55, told the Globe that he has aspirations to eventually launch a Boston-area branch of IOCB Prague, with the intention to create a binational lab. He did not detail how it would be funded. […]

Sabatini first visited IOCB Prague in the fall of 2022, when the then-unemployed scientist was invited to give a scientific talk, according to IOCB.”

We all know how the IOCB leaders want the sexual harassment and mTOR fraud to be funded. EU Commission pumps enormous money into Czech research, and yes, they will fund Sabatini, simply because he published in Nature and Cell. They are that stupid.

In parallel, also on 13 November 2023, IOCB issued this public announcement, where they mention:

“The management of IOCB Prague is aware of the problems that David Sabatini encountered with his former employer. Prof. Jan Konvalinka comments: “We believe that he has been punished enough for his previous actions – IOCB would have proceeded differently – and that the research community will be served best if this brilliant scientist returns to conducting research. The Czech and global research community can only gain from giving David Sabatini a second chance.”

Similar to Prof. Konvalinka, junior principal investigator Dr. Zuzana Kečkéšová, who also serves as the ethical proxy of the institute, supports David Sabatini’s hiring at the IOCB: “I am well aware of the controversy that has upended Dr. Sabatini’s career, and I understand its complex nature, which still resonates throughout US academia. At the same time, I do not believe that striking Dr. Sabatini from the list of people who can ever hold a job again and handing out additional exemplary punishments helps solve the structural problems of women in science.“

Zuzana Keckesova befriended mTORman during her postdoctoral stay at MIT, where she worked in the lab of Robert Weinberg, a fake cancer researcher who published lots of fraud.

You won’t reach this WomenInSTEM champion with arguments about research integrity either. Here is Keckesova’s very first paper, from her PhD at UCL in London and specifically highlighted on her Wikipedia profile:

A very new paper, note that the reused image changed brightness:

Valentina Cutano , Jessica Marianne Ferreira Mendes , Sara Escudeiro-Lopes , Susana Machado , Judith Vinaixa Forner , Juan M Gonzales-Morena , Martin Prevorovsky , Viacheslav Zemlianski , Yuxiong Feng , Petra Kralova Viziova , Andrea Hartmanova , Beata Malcekova , Pavel Jakoube , Sonia Iyer , Zuzana Keckesova LACTB exerts tumor suppressor properties in epithelial ovarian cancer through regulation of Slug Life Science Alliance (2023) doi: 10.26508/lsa.202201510

I propose to apply the good Czech tradition which the Prague academic Jan Hus established centuries ago. Defenestration.

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Heroic interventions

Again, news about the murderous trachea transplant surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, this time from Italy. As reminder, before coming to Karolinska Institutet in Sweden (where he was now sentenced to jail term), Macchiarini practised trachea transplants in Spain and in Italy, which left several people dead and the rare survivors mutilated. Five patients were treated by Macchiarini and his henchmen at the Careggi University Hospital in Florence, 4 of them died. Read here:

The fifth patient barely survived. This is what I previously wrote about her, thanks to the Florentine journalist Alessio Gaggioli:

G.M, female, born 1987, diagnosed with left-side bronchomalacia (softness of bronchi). She was operated on 28.09.2010 at Careggi, Florence and received a cadaveric trachea graft to replace her left bronchus. Macchiarini’s clinical partners were Gonfiotti, Jaus. As severe complications with the graft ensued 2 months after the operation (aorto-bronchial fistula), she had her left lung removed and suffered “serious permanent brain damage”. Between 2010 and 2011 she underwent 7 interventions after transplantation (see also Corriere article).

Now, Gaggioli has a new scoop, published in Corriere Fiorentino on 11 November 2023. Translated (with help of Google Translate):

“The protagonist is a girl – whose name we cannot name for privacy reasons – who had a bronchus problem that caused her to cough and have difficulty breathing when she was under stress. After two surgeries the situation only slightly improved. However, she wanted to completely eliminate the problem and against the contrary opinions of at least three different surgeons who advised against another operation (the risks were greater than the possible benefits); when the young woman met Macchiarini who proposed the transplant to her as an indispensable choice for leading a normal life, she agreed to undergo an operation never performed before in the history of thoracic surgery: the bronchus transplant.”

Correction: Macchiarini’s first ever trachea transplant (in Barcelona in 2008) was in fact of a bronchus, the relevant two Lancet papers were recently retracted:

Gaggioli’s article continues:

“Even though three surgeons were opposed to even a minimally invasive operation which would still have entailed too many risks compared to the slight discomfort suffered by the young woman, Macchiarini convinced her to undergo an extreme operation. The result was the onset of a serious post-operative problem that put her life in danger : she needed a new operation, she was saved by a miracle, but with serious and irreversible physical consequences.

The woman then signed an out-of-court agreement with Careggi , in which she was awarded a large compensation, in exchange for total confidentiality on the matter. In the documents attached to that agreement, which we have come into possession of, we read how the young woman was suffering from a “very modestly disabling” illness which did not require “heroic” interventions”. Words that perhaps suggest a possible lack of third-party controls on the activities carried out by Macchiarini in Careggi”

Oversight and medical ethics are foreign, barbaric words at Careggi. In fact, Macchiarini was always protected from the very top, by the then-governor of Tuscany, Enrico Rossi. Gaggioli reminds us:

“The then-governor underlined that those interventions obtained the green light from the Careggi Ethics Committee and the Superior Council of Health. But he reiterated: «If there were errors or shortcomings with respect to the protocol (…), all the necessary checks and investigations will be carried out».

The checks , while carried to the end in Sweden – with the criminal conviction of Macchiarini and the proof of false data in his research by the scientific authorities -, in Italy they were never carried out. Even more so since, contrary to Rossi’s words, the transplants appear to have been performed on at least one patient who was not terminally ill. “

Gaggioli asks at the end:

“Could Macchiarini have been stopped sooner? Did the hospital and
consequently the Region have to pay further compensation for the — unsuccessful transplants performed in Florence? And what is the (clinical) history of the other four patients who underwent previously untested interventions in a public facility?”

Careggi leaders, Rossi and other Tuscany officials have blood on their hands and they actively sabotage all attempts at investigation. It is the same in Spain.

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Almost impossible to explain as unintended

Science reports another case of massive fraud in Alzheimer’s research. The perpetrator: Berislav Zlokovic, Serbia-born Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC).

Zlokovic forced his lab members to fake data, Now, he is about to run a clinical trial on 1400 patients with a drug against acute ischaemic stroke, called 3K3A-APC. This trial is funded by NIH with $30 million, the company behind the drug, ZZ Biotech, is owned by Zlokovic. There is now a small setback, as Science reports in a long article from 13 November 2023:

“But a 113-page dossier obtained by Science from a small group of whistleblowers paints a less encouraging picture. The dossier, which they submitted to NIH, highlights evidence from the phase 2 trial that the experimental remedy might have actually increased deaths in the first week after treatment: Six of the 66 stroke patients who received 3K3A-APC died within this period, compared with one among 44 in the placebo group, although the death rate evened out after a month. Patients who received the drug also trended toward greater disability and dependency at the end of the trial, 90 days after treatment.

Deepening the concern, the dossier also highlights evidence that dozens of papers from Zlokovic’s lab—including many supporting the idea that the compound was ready for human testing—contain seemingly doctored data that suggest scientific misconduct. The whistleblowers say apparent changes to images used for protein identification and other purposes seem to skew results in favor of the scientist’s hypotheses, which include influential ideas about the blood-brain barrier and its role in stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as how 3K3A-APC supposedly affects it.”

Science‘s dossier is unavailable, they only released under this link a list of 37 papers, in top journals like Cell, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Medicine, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuron etc. One of them is Lyden et al 2019, which announced the “Final Results of the RHAPSODY Trial: A Multi-Center, Phase 2 Trial Using a Continual Reassessment Method to Determine the Safety and Tolerability of 3K3A-APC“, and which served as the basis for the NIH-funded phase 3 trial mentioned above. According to Science, the clinical data there is manipulated.

It seems to me, it was Matthew Schrag who originally exposed Zlokovic’s data fabrications. The same whistleblower who uncovered the Alzheimer’s fraud affairs of Cassava Sciences and Sylvain Lesne:

Now, some of the older anonymous posts have exactly the same style as Schrag’s signed comments from 2023. Like here:

Huang Guo , Dong Liu , Harris Gelbard , Tong Cheng , Rae Insalaco , José A Fernández , John H Griffin , Berislav V Zlokovic Activated Protein C Prevents Neuronal Apoptosis via Protease Activated Receptors 1 and 3 Neuron (2004) doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(04)00019-4 

Thanks to Schrag’s investigation, to which later Elisabeth Bik and Cheshire (Actinopolyspora biskrensis) contributed, Zlokovic has presently a massive record on PubPeer, all flagged for outright data forgery. Here is a join effort by Schrag and Bik:

Zhen Zhao , Abhay P Sagare , Qingyi Ma , Matthew R Halliday , Pan Kong , Kassandra Kisler , Ethan A Winkler , Anita Ramanathan , Takahisa Kanekiyo , Guojun Bu , Nelly Chuqui Owens , Sanket V Rege , Gabriel Si , Ashim Ahuja , Donghui Zhu , Carol A Miller , Julie A Schneider, Manami Maeda , Takahiro Maeda , Tohru Sugawara , Justin K Ichida, Berislav V Zlokovic Central role for PICALM in amyloid-β blood-brain barrier transcytosis and clearance Nature Neuroscience (2015) doi: 10.1038/nn.4025 

Zlokovic is already successfully correcting his papers:

Robert D. Bell , Ethan A. Winkler , Abhay P. Sagare , Itender Singh , Barb LaRue , Rashid Deane, Berislav V. Zlokovic Pericytes control key neurovascular functions and neuronal phenotype in the adult brain and during brain aging Neuron (2010) doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.043 

Either Science or Schrag himself doesn’t want him to be credited with looking into Zlokovic’s papers since at least 2015. Science says first PubPeer posts about Zlokovic “began to surface in 2017“, while June 2015 is true, followed by another wave in late 2019, and a third wave from 2022 till now. Remarkably, Cheshire outed his real identity in Science:

“Over a few weeks Schrag examined Zlokovic’s publications, many in leading journals, and the 3K3A-APC clinical trial reports. He also recruited Kevin Patrick, a forensic image analyst who is not a scientist and uses the pseudonym “Cheshire” on social media. (Patrick, who agreed to have his identity revealed publicly for the first time in this article, made additional findings.) Mu Yang, a neurobiologist at Columbia University, also contributed. Schrag and Yang worked independently from their respective universities. The dossier they compiled also folds in comments about Zlokovic’s research posted to PubPeer by Patrick and microbiologist and forensic image analyst Elisabeth Bik, among others.”

Science invited experts to assess the dossier by Schrag, Bik and Cheshire:

“One of seven neuroscientists who reviewed the dossier is Stanford University’s Thomas Südhof, a Nobel laureate who has seen some of his own papers criticized on PubPeer. (He conceded some errors and rejected other critiques as unfounded.) He cautions against uncritically accepting every apparent image anomaly as evidence of misconduct. “I’m not implying that some of the key papers underlying the clinical trials have fraudulent elements,” Südhof says. […] He was particularly struck by a 2004 Nature Medicine paper that appears to show a single blood vessel cross section copied and pasted digitally in two other places within an image (see image, above). Südhof calls it “almost impossible” to explain as unintended.”

It was this paper:

Dong Liu , Tong Cheng , Huang Guo , José A Fernández , John H Griffin , Xiaomei Song , Berislav V Zlokovic Tissue plasminogen activator neurovascular toxicity is controlled by activated protein C Nature Medicine (2004) doi: 10.1038/nm1122 

Funny, Südhof is perfectly able to explain duplications of numerical raw data in his own papers as totally innocent, unindented and unaffecting the conclusions.

This is what went on in Zlokovic’s lab, according to the whistleblowers:

“The four former lab members who allege Zlokovic pushed them and others to manipulate data paint a picture of a pressure cooker environment in which their boss expected new data almost every week, always in line with his hypotheses. […]

In lab meetings, the accusers say, researchers were discouraged from speaking up and contributing intellectually to the lab’s work, which was tightly controlled by Zlokovic. “It’s science. So normally you would express your opinions,” one notes. Instead, that person says, newcomers soon learned that speaking up meant facing “humiliation”—a term three of the insiders used—and dismissal of their comments. Except to answer questions, one researcher says, “we were all silent.”

All four say Zlokovic routinely castigated junior scientists when his desired experimental results were not obtained. “If you are not in agreement with him, you will lose the lead authorship on a paper or on a project,” one of the scientists says. “Of course, this is important for your career.” Another says, “If the data does not look like the hypothesis, we were afraid to even bring it to the lab meeting.”

One researcher described how a group of lab members approached Zilkha’s human resources department about the “toxic environment.” The complaint was rejected because they insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of retaliation. […]

Several former lab members provided details of experimental data from Zlokovic’s lab that they say were falsified. These included experiments referenced in the whistleblower dossier. In some cases, they said, data points that would have invalidated the desired results were removed. “It was not real science. He already knew what he wanted to say” before the experiment was completed, one says. “I started hating science. … It made me sick.” […]

But two of the former lab members say that after an experiment was completed and its results published, Zlokovic sometimes admonished his scientists to make sure the notebooks were “clean.” That was understood to mean pasting into them printouts of the published results and methodology or omitting contrary details that challenged the paper’s conclusions. Zlokovic explained that those changes were needed in case of an “audit,” according to the two scientists.”

Perfectly common approach to science, no? Also here, Zlokovic announced that “Correction is in press with the journal“:

Axel Montagne , Angeliki M Nikolakopoulou , Zhen Zhao , Abhay P Sagare , Gabriel Si , Divna Lazic , Samuel R Barnes , Madelaine Daianu , Anita Ramanathan , Ariel Go , Erica J Lawson , Yaoming Wang , William J Mack , Paul M Thompson , Julie A Schneider , Jobin Varkey, Ralf Langen , Eric Mullins, Russell E Jacobs, Berislav V Zlokovic Pericyte degeneration causes white matter dysfunction in the mouse central nervous system Nature Medicine (2018) doi: 10.1038/nm.4482

It is not at all certain that Zlokovic will be sacked and any his papers retracted. The man brings enormous money to USC:

“Under Zlokovic’s leadership, the USC institute has expanded to more than 30 labs and grown its annual funding more than 10-fold, exceeding $39 million in 2022. NIH grants to Zlokovic have totaled about $93 million. A prodigious fundraiser, in the past decade alone he has added at least $28 million from private sources, according to USC.”

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Further allegations will be treated as vexatious

The Queen Mary University London (QMUL) just shat itself. There is no other word to describe their statement regarding their professor Jesmond Dalli. You can read about Dalli’s fake science and his failed QMUL spin-off Resolomics in earlier Friday Shorts, and here:

Basically, Dalli and his Harvard mentor Charles Serhan invented the so-called Specialized Pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) in the blood, which would have revolutionised immunology were they not a noise artefact, or rather a fabrication by Dalli’s garbage research. 70 papers are affected, and Dalli even admitted the figures were made-up, which he declared to be “representative illustrations“.

So this is QMUL’s public announcement from June 2023:

Statement about Professor Jesmond Dalli

Two independent investigations resolve complaints of research misconduct against Jesmond Dalli

Two independent investigations – by Queen Mary University of London and Harvard Medical School – have resolved complaints of research misconduct against Dr Dalli.

At Queen Mary University of London, we take research integrity very seriously. We are committed to creating an environment that supports the highest standards and have put in place measures to support this.  Any allegations of research misconduct are investigated thoroughly.

Following allegations of research misconduct, Queen Mary conducted an independent investigation into the allegations around analytical methods and data presentation by Professor Jesmond Dalli.  There was a finding related to the potential misinterpretation of an illustration as data which has been dealt with in correspondence with journals and senior authors. There were absolutely no findings of data falsification or fabrication of data.

We are also aware that a parallel investigation by Harvard Medical School into the same complaint has found no research misconduct or falsification of data.

Queen Mary University of London believes the matter to be now closed.  Further allegations of a substantially similar nature will be treated as vexatious.  Our position is that the methodological debate should be resolved through the academic literature and discourse.

Told you, they shat themselves. They almost literally say that yes, everything Dalli published is fake trash, but being an inept, ignorant and learning-resistant utter moron seeking to dishonestly enrich himself is what English science is really all about. Go to hell, you vexatious critics, and write your complaints in peer-reviewed journals. Which is indeed what the critics keep doing. On 9 November 2023, Nature Communications published this Matters Arising:

Valerie B. O’Donnell , Nils H. Schebb , Ginger L. Milne , Michael P. Murphy , Christopher P. Thomas , Dieter Steinhilber , Stacy L. Gelhaus , Hartmut Kühn , Michael H. Gelb , Per-Johan Jakobsson , Ian A. Blair , Robert C. Murphy , Bruce A. Freeman , Alan R. Brash , Garret A. FitzGerald Failure to apply standard limit-of-detection or limit-of-quantitation criteria to specialized pro-resolving mediator analysis incorrectly characterizes their presence in biological samples Nature Communications (2023) doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41766-w

It starts with:

“Specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM) derived from oxygenation of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were originally described by Serhan and colleagues and have been proposed as mediators of inflammation resolution. Families of SPM described in the literature include lipoxins, resolvins, maresins, protectins and their peptide conjugates. Gomez and co-authors reported that levels of plasma SPM from patients with early rheumatoid arthritis predict response to biologic therapy after 6 months. SPM were measured in this study using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). On reviewing the methods, supplementary analytical data, and the online peer review file, we note serious concerns, regarding both analytical methods and experimental conclusions. Application of this flawed methodology to SPM analysis brings into question the very occurrence of many of these lipids in biological samples, their proposed impact on inflammatory processes, and claims of their utility as biomarkers.”

And ends with:

“In summary, methanol or buffer blanks can generate integrated areas in excess of 2000 cps, as well as poor quality MS/MS data that can erroneously suggest SPM precursor and product ions that are reported in datasets from Gomez et al¹. The method used by Gomez¹ and cited articles^{4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11} is flawed, artifactually detecting lipids where none exist. Since this is the analytical approach most commonly used for SPM analysis, the evidence for the presence of SPM in biological matrices and their inferred role in inflammation resolution needs re-evaluation.

Having shat themselves in public, there is only one way for QMUL. These tossers must issue the same statement for Dalli’s besieged colleagues like Christoph Thierermann or Ken Suzuki now.

Science also reported about this affair on 15 November 2023,, mentioning:

“But a source at QMUL familiar with its inquiry tells Science that the university’s research investigative panel did find evidence of misconduct. Science has also obtained an email sent by the QMUL vice principal of research and innovation stating that the panel “upheld all the allegations” against Dalli and a colleague at the school and that the matter “is now progressing to QMUL’s disciplinary process.” Furthermore, a spokesperson for the Wellcome Trust, a funder of Dalli’s research, tells Science it “has put in place some conditions in relation to any future applications from Professor Dalli.””

Dalli is now officially a zombie scientist.

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It’s not a playground here

The Dutch magazine Follow The Money reports a scandal, Google-translated:

“At the end of 2021, the vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Leiden Academic Hospital (LUMC) Pancras Hogendoorn was warned that a hired company with European subsidies was fraudulent. The top of the LUMC already knew in detail in 2019 that a company that regulated millions of European research grants for the hospital was suspected of serious fraud. “The LUMC was aware of this, voluntarily accepted and coordinated, and used all possible means to prevent this from coming to light.”

The whistleblower was Celine Johnson, a PhD student in the lab of Professor Ferry Ossendorp.

“Johnson’s refusal to cooperate in the cover up of the fraud ultimately cost her job. She decides to ring the bell in December 2021 at dean and vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) Pancras Hogendoorn. A second interview will take place in January 2022. “I put everything on the table,” she told Follow the Money and Omroep West.

His influential position gave Johnson confidence that Hogendoorn would take her complaint seriously. He appeared at the appointment with a lawyer and listened attentively according to the PhD candidate.

Johnson had been trying to get attention for a year for fraud with European research funding in the department of the Leiden hospital where she obtained her PhD. Before she turned to Hogendoorn, she had already raised the problem with her staff member, a confidant and two professors of the department. With no results. “We can’t do anything for you,” she was told.”

Johnson eventually turned to the European Research Executive Agency (REA):

“On 21 December 2022, the LUMC will receive an alarming letter: the REA wants to put the hospital out of various European research projects. systematic fraud with European research grants has been discovered and the subsidy give firm accusations against the Leiden hospital. […]

The fraud was committed, among other things, through ‘ghost postings’ such as Johnson’s, who only worked on paper abroad. Those secondments were made via Percuros B.V. […] specialized in writing applications for such subsidies. […]

The driving forces behind Percuros are Alan Chan, Clemens Lowik and Marcel Karperien. Luwik and Carpien were both professors and worked at the Endocrinology and Metabole Diseases department at the LUMC. “

This is how the fraudulent scheme works:

“Percuros places researchers at another hospital or other university, often abroad, to conduct part of their research there. The European Commission is giving money for this.

But many of the secondments from the LUMC appear to exist only on paper. The academic hospital played a crucial role in the coordination of this fraud and has also tried to conceal the scandal, according to letters from REA in the hands of the Follow the Money and Omroep West. “Based on the findings, REA concluded that the LUMC was aware of the fraud, accepted and coordinated it voluntarily, and sought and used all possible means to prevent it from coming to light.” […]

The PhD students work without knowing it on paper abroad when they are actually working in the Leiden hospital. The EU pays extra for a PhD student who goes on secondment and via this route more money in the draw for the hospital.”

“On 11 May 2023, the LUMC will be definitively expelled from five international projects by the REA. In a letter it writes: “We note that you [..] repeatedly acknowledge the violation of the contractual clauses. [..] That is why REA maintains its conclusions and concludes that LUMC has systematically committed serious breaches of contractual obligations.

Professor Ferry Ossendorp plays a key role in the fraud case, according to the REA. He was involved in the recruitment of researchers and allegedly violated several grant agreements.

The REA writes: ‘Based on our assessment, it is Professor Ossendorp who is responsible for many of the irregularities’ and ‘we are particularly concerned about Professor Ossendorp’s repeated involvement in the various violations of the grant agreement.’

Celine Johnson has a burnout from the situation. Ossendorp’s reaction when she reported that, speaks volumes. “He said to me, ‘It’s not a playground here, this is work.’”

Well, I say this is nothing. This is how one defrauds EU research grants properly and, most importantly, LEGALLY:

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Retraction Watchdogging

One week retractions

Fastest retractions ever?

Wei Zhang , Xiaowen Yang , Jianping Lv , Shichang An Research on Correlations of miR-196a Expression with Progression and Prognosis of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Clinical Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology (2022) doi: 10.2147/ccid.s323414

These nine papers are all from China but have different authors, it is obvious they all are a product of a papermill. Sholto David contacted the publisher Dove Press (part of Taylor & Francis) on 30 October 2023. On 5 November, he received a reply that the paper will be retracted.

The retraction was published on 9 November 2023:

“We, the Editors and Publisher of Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, have retracted the following article.

Following publication of the article, concerns were raised about the duplication of images from Figure 4 with images from other unrelated articles. Specifically,

• Images for Figure 4A and 4B have been duplicated with images in Figure 4A from Xu L, Ni N, Gao H, Hu P. MicroRNA‑1301‑3p promotes the progression of non‑small cell lung cancer by targeting Thy‑1 and predicts poor prognosis of patients. Oncology Letters. 2021;21:327. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2021.12589; Figure 4A from Dong A, Zhang J, Sun W, Hua H, Sun Y. Upregulation of miR-421 predicts poor prognosis and promotes proliferation, migration, and invasion of papillary thyroid cancer cells. Journal of the Chinese Medical Association. 2020;83(11):991–996. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000426; and Figure 4a from Long K, Zeng Q, Dong W. The clinical significance of microRNA-409 in pancreatic carcinoma and associated tumor cellular functions. Bioengineered. 2021;12(1):4633–4642. https://doi.org/10.1080/21655979.2021.1956404.

The authors did not respond to our queries and were unable to provide an explanation for the duplicated images or provide data for the study. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore retracting the article and the authors were notified of this.”

Here are the other papers, two were published with Spandidos, one by Chinese Medical Association, one with Taylor and Francis, and the other four with Dove Press (those are also now retracted as per 10 November 2023):

• 10.3892/ol.2021.12589
• 10.3892/ol.2021.12662
  • 10.3892/ol.2020.12249
• 10.2147/CMAR.S305547 (retracted)
• 10.2147/CCID.S323414 (retracted)
• 10.2147/CMAR.S345618 (retracted)
• 10.2147/OTT.S284212 (retracted)
• 10.1080/21655979.2021.1956404
• 10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000426

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One months retractions

Not as fast as Dove Press, but also PLOS One‘s 9 retractions happened soon after Sholto David made his notification. How it started, in September 2023:

Rami Al Batran , Fouad Al‐Bayaty , Mahmood Ameen Abdulla , Mazen M Jamil Al‐Obaidi , Maryam Hajrezaei , Pouya Hassandarvish , Mustafa Fouad , Shahram Golbabapour , Samaneh Talaee Gastroprotective effects of Corchorus olitorius leaf extract against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal hemorrhagic lesions in rats Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (2013) doi: 10.1111/jgh.12229

Of course this paper was NOT retracted, because it was published by Wiley. Also the other publishers catered by same papermill saw no reason for action. But PLOS One retracted these NINE papers on 10 November 2023:

• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294006
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294007
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294008
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294009
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294010
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294011
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294005
• 0.1371/journal.pone.0294012
• 10.1371/journal.pone.0294016 

The retraction notices mentioned:

“Some of the similar (or reused) images were used to represent controls in these articles, but different methodological details were reported for the indicated experiments in the articles’ Materials and Methods sections. Given the nature and extent of the issues, the PLOS ONE Editors are concerned about the reliability of data management and/or reporting for this study”

Most authors are affiliated with University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Not all agreed to retractions, or replied at all.

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Suspicious changes in authorship

What else PLOS One needs to retract, is their member of editorial board, Kittisak Jermsittiparsert. This dude runs several hijacked journals and a papermill to supply them. Read here:

If PLOS One is not convinced yet: elsewhere, at Elsevier, a paper by KittySack was just retracted for papermilling:

Amir Aris Lekvan, Reza Habibifar, Mehran Moradi, Mohammad Khoshjahan, Sayyad Nojavan, Kittisak Jermsittiparsert Robust optimization of renewable-based multi-energy micro-grid integrated with flexible energy conversion and storage devices Sustainable Cities and Society (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2020.102532

The undated, but newly published retraction notice stated:

“This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

Post-publication, the editors discovered suspicious changes in authorship between the original submission and the revised version of this paper. The changes were made without explanation and without the exceptional approval of the handling Editor, which is contrary to the journal policy on changes to authorship. The editor investigated further and the explanation provided by the corresponding author was deemed unsatisfactory.”

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Valid despite the potential replication

And now, a retraction which took 4 years. The offending scientist is Yogeshwer Shukla, an Ayurveda cheater from India. Read about him here:

 Flagged by Smut Clyde in May 2019:

In April 2022, an editorial Expression of Concern was published, declaring Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 to be falsified, but:

“Following an investigation, it was concluded that the conclusions of this article are still valid despite the potential replication, but the Editors-in-Chief would like to urge the readers to use caution when interpreting the results of the article.”

A year and a half later, more “replications” were found and the conclusions went from valid to the opposite. A retraction was published on 13 November 2023:

“The Editors-in-Chief therefore no longer have confidence in the presented data.
None of the authors have responded to any correspondence from the editor or publisher about this retraction.”

It took them over 4 years to cautiously lose confidence.

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A satisfactory explanation

At Elsevier, a journal which publishes largely papermill forgeries, decided to retract 10 representative papers to have peace from criticism. Read about Ceramics International here:

This announcement was issued on 13 November 2023:

Retraction regarding previously published articles

These articles have been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

In investigating concerns brought up regarding the authenticity of the articles, the Editor reached out to the corresponding authors for an explanation.

The corresponding authors failed to provide a satisfactory explanation. The Editors therefore feel that the findings of the manuscript cannot be relied upon and that the articles needs to be retracted.

These are the retracted papers in Ceramics International, all from China:

• Ning Li, Kaihuan Yu, Qinghua Zhuo, Zhuliang Lin Atomic layer deposition of NiS₂ nanoparticles on surface-modified MoS₂ nanosheets for improved electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction in acid media 2021
• Ling Tai, Yingxue Zhou Creating zinc vacancy within 3D hierarchical ZnIn₂S₄ particles for boosted photocatalytic performance towards H₂ evolution reaction 2021
• Yanfang Zhu, Guiyang Xu, Wenqi Song, Yuzhen Zhao, Zemin He, Zongcheng Miao Anchoring single Ni atoms on defected 2D MXene nanosheets as an efficient electrocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction 2021
• Hanwei Cui, Guosheng Zhu, Liying Qiu, Xiufeng Ye Facile synthesis of Mg-doped calcium silicate porous nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery and ovarian cancer treatment 2021
• Huiguo Cao, Dong Zhang, Xuefeng Ning, Jiguo Geng Constructing magnetically recoverable CdS/CaFe₂O₄ P–N heterojunctions for enhanced photoelectrochemical properties towards H₂ evolution reaction 2021
• Zhenzhen Jiang, Li Feng, Junren Zhu Synthesis of magnetically recyclable porous CoFe₂O₄/Rh composites with large BET surface area for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant 2021
• Yuting Zhou, Weidong Li, Xia Jiang, Yan Sun, Huayun Yang, Qi Liu, Yong Cao, Yun Zhang, Haixiang Cheng Synthesis of strontium (Sr) doped hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanorods for enhanced adsorption of Cr (VI) ions from wastewater 2021
• Sheng Li, Renzi Zhang, Daoxin Wang, Li Feng, Kang Cui Synthesis of hollow maghemite (<gamma>-Fe₂O₃) particles for magnetic field and pH-responsive drug delivery and lung cancer treatment 2021
• Xiaofen Ge, Meili Fu, Xing Niu, Xiaoxiao Kong Atomic layer deposition of γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles on multi-wall carbon nanotubes for magnetic drug delivery and liver cancer treatment 2020
• Maosheng Deng, Ying Huang The phenomena and mechanism for the enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes with Ag₃PO₄/graphene oxide aerogel composites 2020

All other papermill trash in this journal can be relied upon.

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Science Breakthroughs

Fecal samples

Irish researchers discovered that you can infect yourself with Alzheimer’s from patients who don’t wash their hands. Yes, seriously.

A press release from the University College Cork describes “A groundbreaking study“:

“For the first time, a study has demonstrated that Alzheimer’s symptoms can be transmitted to a healthy young organism through the gut microbiota, confirming its role in the disease. […]

Alzheimer’s patients had a higher abundance of inflammation-promoting bacteria in fecal samples, and these changes were directly associated with their cognitive status.

Professor Yvonne Nolan said: “The memory tests we investigated rely on the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. We saw that animals with gut bacteria from people with Alzheimer’s produced fewer new nerve cells and had impaired memory.””

Yes, they shoved the poo from demented old people into the bums of lab rats, and lo and behold, rats went stupid. This is the paper:

Stefanie Grabrucker , Moira Marizzoni , Edina Silajdžić , Nicola Lopizzo , Elisa Mombelli , Sarah Nicolas , Sebastian Dohm-Hansen , Catia Scassellati , Davide Vito Moretti , Melissa Rosa , Karina Hoffmann , John F Cryan , Olivia F O’Leary , Jane A English , Aonghus Lavelle , Cora O’Neill , Sandrine Thuret , Annamaria Cattaneo , Yvonne M Nolan Microbiota from Alzheimer’s patients induce deficits in cognition and hippocampal neurogenesis Brain (2023) doi: 10.1093/brain/awad303

Its abstract says:

“To understand the involvement of Alzheimer’s patient gut microbiota in host physiology and behaviour, we transplanted faecal microbiota from Alzheimer’s patients and age-matched healthy controls into microbiota-depleted young adult rats. We found impairments in behaviours reliant on adult hippocampal neurogenesis, an essential process for certain memory functions and mood, resulting from Alzheimer’s patient transplants. Notably, the severity of impairments correlated with clinical cognitive scores in donor patients. […] Serum from Alzheimer’s patients decreased neurogenesis in human cells in vitro and were associated with cognitive scores and key microbial genera.”

The main reason why the lead authors fabricated this nonsense was to please their boss, as becomes clear from the press release:

“Professor. John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation, who was also involved in this research said: “I’m delighted to be involved in this exciting study that […] aligns with our UCC Futures Framework and the strategic plan for the University in the areas of Food, Microbiome, and Health and the soon-to-be-launched Future Ageing and Brain Science.”

I personally do not know how this nonsense can be fabricated by inadvertent sloppiness alone. But Cork microbiology can be very, uhm, screwed-up.

Now, this John Cryan previously claimed in Frontiers that gut microbiome is also responsible for autism and schizophrenia (Kelly et al 2017), later on he announced to be able to reverse Alzheimer’s and old age with stool transplants from healthy people (Boehme et al 2021, read earlier Friday Shorts). And this is how he does his research:

Francisco Donoso , Valerie T Ramírez , Anna V Golubeva , Gerard M Moloney , Catherine Stanton, Timothy G Dinan , John F Cryan Naturally Derived Polyphenols Protect Against Corticosterone-Induced Changes in Primary Cortical Neurons The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology (2019) doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyz052 

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