Aneurus Inconstans wrote a story about Argentinian biomedical cheaters and their Spanish superstar mentor, Miguel Beato.

In last year’s El Pais interview, dedicated to his retirement in Barcelona and his permanent departure to Marburg in Germany (where he runs another lab and lives with his family), Beato said things which very much sound like eugenics, e.g.:

“The human being isn’t evolving anymore because medicine and healthcare allow those who do not have the ability to compete biologically to have children anyway. The human genome is no longer evolving, it’s devolving. Rather, we are creating bad genomes because we allow everyone, with whatever defect, myopia or whatever, to reproduce and have children.”

That is nonsense not just ethically but also biologically – humans are actually evolving and adapting to their chosen environment, a common thing in evolution. But Beato’s words can be used to describe his own specific niche. We are creating bad science because we allow fraudsters to academically reproduce and install their academic offspring in faculty positions, over generations.

The CRG which Beato built on a beach in Barcelona is a silly place. It is home to the zombie scientist Maria Pia Cosma and the cheating bully Juan Valcarcel, who absolved Cosma and later on led the Holy Crusade to destroy the blasphemers of St Carlos of Oviedo.

Aneurus makes a connection between Beato at CRG Barcelona and a certain researcher couple at Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine (IBYME) in Buenos Aires, Mario Galigniana and his wife Graciela Piwien-Pilipuk, via their common problematic mentees.

So I will use this occasion to recycle the material from earlier Friday Shorts and tell you a bit about these two CONICET-funded Argentinian cancer researchers. More is on PubPeer, and here is a rather recent fabrication:

Cristina Daneri-Becerra, Brenda Valeiras, Luciana I. Gallo, Mariana Lagadari, Mario D. Galigniana* Cyclophilin A is a mitochondrial factor that forms complexes with p23. Correlative evidence for an antiapoptotic action Journal of Cell Science (2021) doi: 10.1242/jcs.253401 

And these, also recent:

Mariana Lagadari, Nadia R Zgajnar, Luciana I Gallo, Mario D Galigniana* Hsp90-binding immunophilin FKBP51 forms complexes with hTERT enhancing telomerase activity Molecular Oncology (2016) doi: 10.1016/j.molonc.2016.05.002 

Some are advanced Photoshop fabrications, some are lazy duplications. I wrote to Galigniana, and in September 2023 he replied, informing me that he was currently in New Zealand because his daughter had given birth:

“When we return to Buenos Aires by the middle of October, I will address every possible issue after digging into the still available archives and remaining lab-books. Because my lab is empty nowadays, nobody can advance me anything since I have not incorporated students since the last one graduated in March. It happens that I am 65 and our system forces me to get retired by the end of the current year.”

But Galigniana is not really retired, and neither is his wife, Piwien-Pilipuk. Maybe it is too early to start destroying lab records?

Mario D Galigniana, Alejandra G Erlejman, Martín Monte, Celso Gomez-Sanchez, Graciela Piwien-Pilipuk* The hsp90-FKBP52 complex links the mineralocorticoid receptor to motor proteins and persists bound to the receptor in early nuclear events Mol Cell Biol (2010) doi: 10.1128/mcb.01190-09

Maybe even the data for this one can be found in archives, and do appreciate the irony that the first author Pablo Echeverria now works at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Switzerland as “Graphic Arts Project Manager”:

Pablo C. Echeverría, Gisela Mazaira, Alejandra Erlejman, Celso Gomez-Sanchez, Graciela Piwien Pilipuk, Mario D. Galigniana* Nuclear Import of the Glucocorticoid Receptor-hsp90 Complex through the Nuclear Pore Complex Is Mediated by Its Interaction with Nup62 and Importin β Molecular and Cellular Biology (2009) doi: 10.1128/mcb.00649-09

And now, over to Aneurus.

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Solid scientific careers at CONICET with the help of guru Miguel Beato

By Aneurus Inconstans

The Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (IBYME) in Buenos Aires, which belongs to CONICET, strikes again. We have already encountered this incredible place with the saga of Patricia Elizalde and her wizards, who do research on breast cancer by copy-pasting protein bands all around.

Of note, both Prof. Elizalde and her right-hand woman Cecilia Proietti are no longer listed on the IBYME’s website, whatever that means. I speculate this could be due to our reporting, which also triggered the retraction of the disastrous Díaz-Flaqué et al. 2013.

However, other papers from the Elizalde lab still await to be pulled. Like the untenable Proietti et al. 2009, published in Molecular and Cellular Biology. No action has been taken as of today by this allegedly reputable journal. Here are just two of its fake blots, brace yourself:

Cecilia J. Proietti, Cinthia Rosemblit , Wendy Beguelin, Martín A Rivas , María Celeste Díaz Flaqué , Eduardo H. Charreau , Roxana Schillaci , Patricia V. Elizalde Activation of Stat3 by heregulin/ErbB-2 through the co-option of progesterone receptor signaling drives breast cancer growth Molecular and Cellular Biology (2009) doi: 10.1128/mcb.00853-08

We then landed at IBYME a second time with a recent Friday’s Shorts for the outrageous forgeries of Super Mario Galigniana (15 papers flagged on PubPeer for him) and his wife Graciela Piwien-Pilipuk (7 papers on PubPeer), who are trolling about nuclear architecture and receptors for a quarter of a century already.

No retractions to their papers yet, but the outlook wouldn’t be that gloomy if only we dealt with editorial boards of visually unimpaired and honest people. An example of Galigniana’s style, over two decades old:

Guillermo P. Vicent, Adalí Pecci, Alberto Ghini, Graciela Piwien-Pilipuk, Mario D. Galigniana* Differences in Nuclear Retention Characteristics of Agonist-Activated Glucocorticoid Receptor May Determine Specific Responses Exp Cell Res (2002) doi: 10.1006/excr.2002.5532

IBYME scholars moving to Beato’s lab

The first author of the paper above is Guillermo Vicent, who graduated with Galignana at IBYME and than moved to Barcelona, Spain, as a postdoc at the renowned Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in the group of the now retired bigwig and first CRG director Miguel Beato.

Here’s below another problematic piece of work from Vicent, this time with Beato himself as the corresponding author. In figure 4A (left), the copy-pasted bands are beautifully embedded in the blot, no scars are visible, it’s a forgery of high quality:

Guillermo P. Vicent, Ronald Koop, Miguel Beato* Complex role of histone H1 in transactivation of MMTV promoter chromatin by progesterone receptor J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol (2002) doi: 10.1016/s0960-0760(02)00253-4

Astonishingly, the fake Figure 4A shown above was re-published as Figure 2A in Koop et al. 2003, which is another paper by the Beato’s lab accepted a month later by The EMBO Journal, no less. No disclaimer was included that several data (also Figure 1, actually) was already published elsewhere before.

Ronald Koop, Luciano Di Croce, Miguel Beato Histone H1 enhances synergistic activation of the MMTV promoter in chromatin The EMBO Journal (2003) doi: 10.1093/emboj/cdg052 

In the above-discussed Vicent et al. 2002 by the Galigniana lab, the second author is Adalí Pecci, principal investigator at the Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE) in Buenos Aires, another institute that belongs to CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council).

Pecci’s group focus on the study of the mechanisms of action of nuclear receptors in the control of gene expression modulated by steroid ligands with potential pharmacological activity. Of note, Pecci also used to be a postdoc at Beato’s lab, where she learnt all the tricks of the trade.

Luciana Rocha-Viegas, Guillermo P. Vicent, José L. Barañao, Miguel Beato, Adalí Pecci* Glucocorticoids Repress bcl-X Expression in Lymphoid Cells by Recruiting STAT5B to the P4 Promoter J Biol Chem (2006) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m602408200

Now back to Guillermo Vicent. As said, he started his career with Galigniana in Argentina. Please have a look at these issues from a paper dated 1999, where Galigniana is the senior author and Pecci is again in second position:

In 2018 Vicent moved to the Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB), but kept collaborating with his former boss Beato. Please enjoy the following astonishing artwork published a few years ago, in The EMBO Journal. It’s a fine forgery reminiscent of the Galigniana’s and Beato’s school. The background of Figure 1E is composed by identical repeated portions where the protein bands have been stitched onto it:

A Silvina Nacht, Roberto Ferrari, Roser Zaurin, Valentina Scabia, José Carbonell‐Caballero, Francois Le Dily, Javier Quilez, Alexandra Leopoldi, Cathrin Brisken, Miguel Beato, Guillermo P. Vicent* C/EBPα mediates the growth inhibitory effect of progestins on breast cancer cells EMBO J (2019) doi: 10.15252/embj.2018101426

I wonder whether EMBO Press will do their job this time. I fear they won’t. They haven’t replied to my email as yet, nor have they posted a comment on PubPeer saying they are aware of the concern (yes, EMBO Press usually does that). Is this because Miguel Beato is an EMBO member since 1984?

You may think I’m unfair saying so. However, it springs to mind the atrocious case of Lazzerini-Denchi & Helin 2005 by the EMBO member Kristian Helin and his mentee Eros Lazzerini-Denchi, towards which no action has been taken by EMBO for two years already.

And recall CRG’s superstar Maria Pia Cosma again! The learned society EMBO seems to have a special policy on data fraud, members only.

More forgeries in Beato’s papers

Big Miguel, aka “Miguelon”, sports three more worrisome PubPeer entries (8 in total for him).

The first paper has Felix Prado as the first author, who is currently group leader at the Andalusian Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine Centre (CABIMER) in Sevilla, Spain. Look at the blatant fakery in Figure 2C, the first two lanes (red boxes) have been copy-pasted and digitally modified. Cuts and cloned portions are recognizable, and the upper bands are the result of digital modifications:

Félix Prado, Ronald Koop, Miguel Beato* Accurate Chromatin Organization of the Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus Promoter Determines the Nature of the Synergism between Transcription Factors J Biol Chem (2002) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m110094200

The next two articles were flagged on PubPeer already years ago by our sleuth colleagues Elisabeth Bik and Clare Francis, respectively.

The first paper is a collaborative work with Patricia Saragüeta‘s group. Guess where they are working? At magic IBYME, of course. Obviously Beato has boundless esteem for this ‘cradle of knowledge’ and keeps collaborating with anyone there. Have a look below, this is classic IBYME’s style:

Griselda Vallejo, Alejandro D. La Greca, Inti C. Tarifa-Reischle, Ana C. Mestre-Citrinovitz, Cecilia Ballaré, Miguel Beato, Patricia Saragüeta* CDC2 mediates progestin initiated endometrial stromal cell proliferation: a PR signaling to gene expression independently of its binding to chromatin PLoS One (2014) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097311

The next one is a production again from the Beato’s lab, and in a MDPI outlet even! Miguelon is taking the piss:

Gaetano Verde*, Lara I De Llobet, Roni H G Wright, Javier Quilez, Sandra Peiró, François Le Dily, Miguel Beato* Unliganded Progesterone Receptor Governs Estrogen Receptor Gene Expression by Regulating DNA Methylation in Breast Cancer Cells Cancers (2018) doi: 10.3390/cancers10100371

The Guru of us all

In a May 2023 interview with El Pais (in English, worth reading from start to finish), Beato plays the role of the guru of us all, dispensing warnings and judgments on science, society and the evolution of human beings. Apart from the disturbing cynicism of his words in several passages, that good etiquette would suggest avoiding because it’s like pooping in bed, the funniest thing this guy had the gut to say is that human beings are a plague on Earth because…

“…there are too many of us. In other words, the worst thing that medicine has brought to Earth is that there are too many humans. We are a plague and we are taking over the world. The world is not being destroyed by wild animals. We are doing it with our factories, our cities — which are a total monstrosity — the destruction of nature, pollution. It is a culture that can lead to the end of the world for this species and it is approaching that. In the long run, we lose out.”

[Miguel Beato]

I very much agree that we are destroying the world, but has the journalist reminded to Dr Beato who was the guy who created that monstrosity of an institute called CRG, built literally on the beach of Barceloneta? [spoiler: it was him, he wasn’t merely its first director]

Is Beato aware of the countless tons of single-use plastic waste that his institute (and all the others) produce every year for churning out yet more garbage in the form of fake research papers? Or is it Beato’s deliberate strategy to produce questionable science with no real applications so that humans cannot be cured and can die at higher rates? Does Miguelon know that the lab equipment and the reagents and the disposables and the computers worth hundreds of million dollars that fill up his ten-storey-high institute to the top are produced and delivered by those factories he despises?

Has this 84-yo pillar of genomic research ever thought about the horrendous carbon footprint he himself produced in his 50-year-long career by jetting off every second week to attend conferences and meetings around the globe and for visiting his two labs in Barcelona and in Marburg (Germany) while having a good time? Curiously, “beato” in Italian and Spanish means “saint” or “blessed”. Truly a guru. Instead of pretending that he is not also co-responsible for the crazy development of today’s society, can the chatty Beato kindly comment on his problematic articles reported on PubPeer, some of them for years?

IBYME’s lovely location

Unlike the imposing, futuristic and monstrous buildings of other institutes, the IBYME building looks like a high school. It is located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of Buenos Aires, nestled between condominiums where normal people live, surrounded by shops, restaurants and other commercial establishments. It’s lovely.

Unfortunately, people like Vicent, Elizalde, Piwien-Pilipuk and Galigniana are just some of the many questionable researchers blossomed at this ‘temple of knowledge’ founded by the Nobel Prize winner Bernardo Houssay in 1944. I’m afraid science fraud might be endemic at this place, and it seems this holds true at other institutes of CONICET. I beg your pardon if I maliciously came to the conclusion that scientific misconduct has been unofficially accepted as regular business practice over there and at many other renowned places around the globe (isn’t it, Miguelon?).

It springs to mind another notorious institute founded by a Nobel Laureate, Sir John Vane, who established the ridiculous William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) in London, a place infested by an incredible number of crooks.

I realize I’ve compared the British and the Argentinians. What a diplomatic slip! But at least for IBYME there’s a solution. Given the peculiarity of its location, why not converting this place into a parilla, where one can enjoy delicious asado? No clue what sort of culinary plan could be set for WHRI, instead.

Reproducibility of Reproduction Research at IBYME

One line of research carried out at IBYME is reproduction, which has little to do with reproducibility I’m afraid, but rather on fertility and infertility issues. Please meet las directoras Fernanda Parborell and Dalhia Abramovich, y la investigadora superior Marta Tesone, three group leaders who are tightly collaborating on the physiology and disorders of the ovary. Parborell and Abramovich used to be mentees of Tesone, and now have set their own group at IBYME. Let’s start with an ancient classic, with again Adalí Pecci (met above) as a co-author:

Fernanda Parborell, Adali Pecci, Olga Gonzalez, Alejandra Vitale, Marta Tesone* Effects of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist on rat ovarian follicle apoptosis: regulation by epidermal growth factor and the expression of Bcl-2-related genes Biol Reprod (2002) doi: 10.1095/biolreprod67.2.481

Of note, a light halo to the right side of the LA 5h band is likely the mark left by a Photoshop brush tool used to reduce the width of the band, so that its signal quantification displayed with the grey bar beneath is conveniently lower than that of the (duplicated) control band at the same time point 5h. No need to say these blots are of paramount importance for the article’s take-home message articulated in its title.

And now, please open una cerveza and enjoy the splendid comment posted on PubPeer by Dr Parborell about these issues. Every single sentence is a gem (highlights mine):

“Thank you for your information pointing out inadvertent errors I made during my PhD 22 years ago. Unfortunately, upon receiving the handwritten proof, I did not meticulously distinguish some repeated bands (C: lane 5h; LA: lane 5h // C: 0 and 1h). Possibly unintentional errors have arisen from carrying out experiments in six duplicates (N = 6/group). This meant that all protein extracts could not be run on the same gel but on two gels. This circumstance probably led to the error when creating figures with the most representative bands. It is pertinent to note that in 2001 Western blot bands were detected in nitrocellulose membranes developed with photographic films. During that time, enhancing contrast with Photoshop tools was sometimes essential to facilitate greater band sensitivity. Unfortunately, the removal of photographic films from that era was necessary due to severe space limitations in our laboratory. Consequently, access to the original data is unattainable. I extend my gratitude for bringing this to my attention and offer my sincerest apologies for these inadvertent errors. Furthermore, after my long and solid scientific career, I am convinced that scientists have the responsibility to present reproducible and authentic results when submitting manuscripts for review and publication in scientific journals. (PS: this comment was discussed with other authors of the paper).”

[Dr Fernanda Parborell]

Simply awesome.

You see? They create blots with the most representative bands. It’s all fine then, no more questions Your Honor. Uhm, maybe just one more: even 22 years ago, who in the world didn’t have an electrophoresis apparatus that couldn’t run eight lanes in one go, thus requiring two gels? Well, it doesn’t matter, fortunately we are now reassured by Dr Parborell herself that she has had a solid scientific career. Shall we then perform a solidity-test?

Griselda Irusta, Fernanda Parborell, Marina Peluffo, Pulak R. Manna, Silvia I. Gonzalez-Calvar, Ricardo Calandra, Douglas M. Stocco, Marta Tesone* Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein in Ovarian Follicles of Gonadotropin-Stimulated Rats Is Regulated by a Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist1 Biol Reprod (2003) doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.102.009944

Obviously the first two lanes share a common origin, the bright flanks are splices, and no-one can predict where these lanes really come from. The first author Griselda Irusta, after almost 20 years spent at IBYME, is no longer in academia and currently holds a position in a biomedical company.

Below to the left side it’s another Parborell-Irusta production supervised by their boss Tesone, where you can admire a ‘Frankenstein blot’, meaning that each and all the bands are cropped out so that the quantification beneath is completely meaningless. Several papers by this group from the 2000s include Frankenblots, but this one also bears a duplicated actin band (red boxes).

Above to the right, you can admire a first-authorship of la directora Abramovich, where the same pAKT blot appears twice at different exposures/brightness for different time points, and is also slightly rescaled (red boxes).

The next analysis was assisted by the precious ImageTwin software. In the paper one can admire micrographs with cloned portions, mismatched insets, splices of bands all around and other digital manipulations of the Western blots. What more can we wish for? Dang! The corresponding authorship of Dr Parborell! What an expected outcome for her solid scientific career!

Leopoldina Scotti, Griselda Irusta, Dalhia Abramovich, Marta Tesone, Fernanda Parborell* Administration of a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist affects corpus luteum vascular stability and development and induces luteal apoptosis in a rat model of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome Mol Cell Endocrinol (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2011.01.002

Again ImageTwin came handy for the next one, where la investigadora asistente Leopoldina Scotti is again the first author, and the steel-solid skills of Parborell were employed once more to supervise this masterpiece:

Leopoldina Scotti, Dalhia Abramovich, Natalia Pascuali, Griselda Irusta, Gabriela Meresman, Marta Tesone, Fernanda Parborell* Local VEGF inhibition prevents ovarian alterations associated with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol (2014) doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2014.08.013

Below, yet another first-authorship for the highly productive Dr Scotti, and again with the solid supervision of Dr Parborell:

Scotti L, Di Pietro M, Pascuali N, Irusta G, I de Zúñiga, Gomez Peña M, Pomilio C, Saravia F, Tesone M, Abramovich D, Parborell F* Sphingosine-1-phosphate restores endothelial barrier integrity in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome Mol Hum Reprod (2016) doi: 10.1093/molehr/gaw065

More steel-solid research by our good entertainer Dr Parborell:

And last but not least the most recent one, an eight-month-old paper on the amazing effect of resveratrol on doxorubicin-induced damage in mice ovary. Who will miss the great opportunity to employ this natural phenol found in grapes and berries for producing yet another dietary supplement aimed to ameliorate ovary problems? I know what you’re going to say now: there’s no solid evidence that resveratrol has any substantial effect on anything. But we have the solid research by Parborell & Co, no?

Yamila Herrero, Candela Velázquez, Natalia Pascuali, María May, Dalhia Abramovich, Leopoldina Scotti, Fernanda Parborell* Resveratrol alleviates doxorubicin-induced damage in mice ovary Chem Biol Interact (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2023.110431

As you can see above, there’s an obvious overlap between the control and the doxorubicin-treated samples (blue boxes). Additionally, it is astonishing the similarity of the profile of those follicles (dashed red boxes) and adjacent structures (yellow arrows) in the control and Doxo+Res-treated mice. The magenta asterisks also show how similar is the position of the edge of the ovary. This could mean that those images are sections coming from the same animal, therefore cannot represent both the control and the Doxo+Res-treated mice, respectively.

Unfortunately Dr Parborell failed the solidity-test. The outcome is 17 papers tagged on PubPeer for her (not all shown here), of which 13 are co-signed by Tesone and 11 by Abramovich. Of note, Dr Parborell has not replied to any PubPeer thread except for the very first. This is quite common among cheaters. They reply to the first post acknowledging the problem, and apologizing for it, and trying to minimize the issues, etc, in a hope to prevent any further scrutiny. Poor souls.

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