Portrait of Sir Philip Cohen’s Family

Sir Philip Cohen is God. This biochemistry professor at the University of Dundee in UK is the founding director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit (MRC-PPU), fellow of various academies, and winner of many national and international awards. In fact, he is one of the most honoured scientists in the UK, author of almost 600 papers and world’s second most cited scientist in biochemistry from 1992 till 2003. Cohen’s academic offspring, most prominently Dario Alessi, are not just themselves professors in Dundee now, they rule science worldwide. That in fact is a serious problem.

In 2023, the University of Dundee celebrated Sir Philip’s Lifetime Achievement Award, for “his outstanding contribution to the industry and the impact of his research, which has helped establish the University as an international centre of excellence in life sciences“.

Next year, Sir Philip will be 80. Let’s celebrate his legacy. Most of the evidence was collected by the pseudonymous sleuth Clare Francis.

Before we begin, I should mention that the Scientific Advisory Board of MRC-PPU includes a certain Richard Marais of Cancer Research UK in Manchester, whose main problem is not bad science, but his dangerous bullying:

Now, to Cohen and his mentees. Here is Cohen’s former postdoc Simon Rousseau, now professor at McGill University in Montreal in Canada:

Another paper by Rousseau and Cohen was originally flagged for hidden gel splicing. The University of Dundee informed in November 2021 on PubPeer to have “contacted the first author of the article and person responsible for the data in question, Simon Rousseau“, and explained that 2 gel lanes in Fig 1D were “removed based on reviewer’s comments to increase clarity“, that “the Journal has asked us to point out that this publication predates its policy on splicing.”

Simon Rousseau, Matoula Papoutsopoulou , Antony Symons , Dorthe Cook , John M. Lucocq , Alan R. Prescott , Anne O’Garra , Steven C. Ley , Philip Cohen TPL2-mediated activation of ERK1 and ERK2 regulates the processing of pre-TNF alpha in LPS-stimulated macrophages Journal of Cell Science (2008) doi: 10.1242/jcs.018671 

A Correction was issued on 3 November 2022 to address “an unmarked splice inconsistently applied between the two blots in Fig. 1D”. Actually, the Actin blot doesn’t seem to derive from the same gel as pre-TNFa blot, but obviously nobody cares.

Here another collaboration of Cohen’s with a certain coauthor above, John Lucocq. He used to be a humble Reader at the University of St Andrews, but on his LinkedIn profile he insists he was the “Owner“. In any case, since November 2023 Lucocq is an “Independent researcher and teacher”, i.e. unemployed. The first author and Cohen’s postdoc Peter Cheung is now senior lecturer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Peter Cheung, Laura Trinkle-Mulcahy , Philip Cohen , John Lucocq Characterization of a novel phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate-binding protein containing two FYVE fingers in tandem that is targeted to the Golgi The Biochemical journal (2001)   doi: 10.1042/0264-6021:3550113

Next Cohen paper, the penultimate author and Head of MRC-PPU’s cloning team Mark Peggie died in January 2023:

Kristopher Clark , Lorna Plater , Mark Peggie , Philip Cohen Use of the Pharmacological Inhibitor BX795 to Study the Regulation and Physiological Roles of TBK1 and IκB Kinase ϵ The Journal of biological chemistry (2009) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m109.000414 

The first author Kristopher Clark used to be Cohen’s postdoc, in 2012 Cohen made sure Clark won a Young Investigator Award to continue at his MRC-PPU. In 2014 Clark won a 5 year grant from Arthritis Research UK and was given an Independent Investigator position in MRC-PPU. In 2016, Clark left academia for biotech industry, where he works now.

Another paper by Clark, Cohen, and Cohen’s superstar mentee, Dario Alessi, who succeeded his mentor as director of MRC-PPU:

Alessi’s postdoc Nicolas Dzamko is now senior research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia, he has other questionable papers on PubPeer. A very prominent coauthor is the Stanford professor Nathanael Gray, who has many dodgy papers on PubPeer. and who is an associate of such toxic cheaters like David Sabatini and Constantine Mitsiades. Read here:

Another coauthor is the University of Dundee professor Simon Arthur, who also used to be Cohen’s postdoc. Here a paper by Arthur and Gray:

Li Tan , Koshi Akahane , Randall McNally , Kathleen M. S. E. Reyskens , Scott B. Ficarro , Suhu Liu , Grit S. Herter-Sprie , Shohei Koyama , Michael J. Pattison , Katherine Labella , Liv Johannessen , Esra A. Akbay , Kwok-Kin Wong , David A. Frank , Jarrod A. Marto , Thomas A. Look , J. Simon C. Arthur , Michael J. Eck , Nathanael S. Gray Development of Selective Covalent Janus Kinase 3 Inhibitors Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2015) doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00710 

Now a rather recent paper by Arthur, Clark and Cohen:

Manuel Van Gijsel-Bonnello , Nicola J. Darling , Takashi Tanaka , Samuele Di Carmine , Francesco Marchesi , Sarah Thomson , Kristopher Clark , Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska, Henry J. McSorley , Philip Cohen , J. Simon C. Arthur Salt-inducible kinase 2 regulates fibrosis during bleomycin-induced lung injury The Journal of biological chemistry (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102644

Another one by Cohen and Arthur:

Catherine E. Gleason , Alban Ordureau , Robert Gourlay , J. Simon C. Arthur , Philip Cohen Polyubiquitin binding to optineurin is required for optimal activation of TANK-binding kinase 1 and production of interferon β The Journal of biological chemistry (2011) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m111.267567 

And this one is rather fresh in comparison, the penultimate author form Ireland, Padraic Fallon, is Trinity College Dublin professor who is said to have “delivered a number of seminal discoveries” and “ranked in top 1% of scientists in the world by citations for publications from 2018-2022 in immunology“:

Sambit K. Nanda, Tsunehisa Nagamori, Mark Windheim, Sylvia Amu , Gabriella Aviello , Janet Patterson-Kane , J. Simon C. Arthur, Steven C. Ley, Padraic Fallon, Philip Cohen ABIN2 Function Is Required To Suppress DSS-Induced Colitis by a Tpl2-Independent Mechanism The Journal of Immunology (2018) doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1700614 

So many grand men of science and they can’t do a simple western blot, eh? Same problem here, by Arthur and Alessi:

Edward J McManus , Barry J Collins , Peter R Ashby , Alan R Prescott , Victoria Murray-Tait , Laura J Armit , J Simon C Arthur , Dario R Alessi The in vivo role of PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 binding to PDK1 PH domain defined by knockin mutation The EMBO Journal (2004) doi: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7600218 

Now, Alessi, Arthur and Alessi’s and Cohen’s former postdoc Jose Lizcano:

Gopal P. Sapkota , Agnieszka Kieloch , Jose M. Lizcano , Sonia Lain , J. Simon C. Arthur , Michayla R. Williams , Nick Morrice , Maria Deak , Dario R. Alessi Phosphorylation of the protein kinase mutated in Peutz-Jeghers cancer syndrome, LKB1/STK11, at Ser431 by p90(RSK) and cAMP-dependent protein kinase, but not its farnesylation at Cys(433), is essential for LKB1 to suppress cell vrowth The Journal of biological chemistry (2001) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m009953200 

Arthur is not exactly a science genius. He fell for Rony Seger‘s fraudulent claims that mobile phones would cause cancer – Arthur’s 2007 Commentary “MAPK activation by radio waves” had to be retracted in November 2024 together with Seger’s paper (Friedman et al 2007) which Arthur endorsed. The Dundee professor also had some very hair-raising collaborations. For example, Ho et al 2012 with Eric Lam (who was sacked by Imperial College London for fraud), or Park et al 2005 with Michael Karin, read below:

The first author above, Gopal Sapkota, a mentee of Alessi, is himself full professor now, affiliated of course at MRC-PPU of the University of Dundee. Well, he sure earned it:

Gopal P. Sapkota, Maria Deak , Agnieszka Kieloch , Nick Morrice , Aaron A. Goodarzi , Carl Smythe , Yosef Shiloh , Susan P. Lees-Miller , Dario R. Alessi Ionizing radiation induces ataxia telangiectasia mutated kinase (ATM)-mediated phosphorylation of LKB1/STK11 at Thr-366 The Biochemical journal (2002) -doi: 10.1042/bj20021284 

Allow me to turn to Gray. A joint study by Gray and Cohen’s heir Alessi:

Jinwei Zhang , Xianming Deng , Hwan Geun Choi , Dario R. Alessi , Nathanael S. Gray Characterization of TAE684 as a potent LRRK2 kinase inhibitor Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters (2012) doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2012.01.084 

A set of two papers by Gray and Alessi:

• John M. Hatcher , Jinwei Zhang , Hwan Geun Choi , Genta Ito , Dario R. Alessi , Nathanael S. Gray Discovery of a Pyrrolopyrimidine (JH-II-127), a Highly Potent, Selective, and Brain Penetrant LRRK2 Inhibitor ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters (2015) doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.5b00064 
• Xianming Deng , Jonathan M. Elkins , Jinwei Zhang , Qingkai Yang , Tatiana Erazo , Nestor Gomez , Hwan Geun Choi , Jinhua Wang , Nicolas Dzamko , Jiing-Dwan Lee , Taebo Sim , NamDoo Kim , Dario R. Alessi , Jose M. Lizcano , Stefan Knapp , Nathanael S. Gray Structural determinants for ERK5 (MAPK7) and leucine rich repeat kinase 2 activities of benzo[e]pyrimido-[5,4-b]diazepine-6(11H)-ones European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2013.10.052 

Another set of two papers, in one of those Sir Philip’s PhD student, now University of Liverpool professor named Patrick Eyers, whose wife and fellow Liverpool professor Claire Eyers also used to be Cohen’s PhD mentee. The Eyerses also did some sciencing with University of Dundee’s former cheater Neil Perkins (read April 2024 Shorts):

• Clare A Hall-Jackson, Michel Goedert, Philip Hedge , Philip Cohen Effect of SB 203580 on the activity of c-Raf in vitro and in vivo Oncogene (1999) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1202603 
• Clare A Hall-Jackson, Patrick A Eyers, Philip Cohen, Michel Goedert, F Tom Boyle , Neil Hewitt , Helen Plant , Philip Hedge Paradoxical activation of Raf by a novel Raf inhibitor Chemistry & Biology (1999) doi: 10.1016/s1074-5521(99)80088-x 

Basically, one gels was used for two different experiments in two different papers, after some image fudgery. But zero concerns for the University of Dundee, which triumphantly declared on PubPeer in November 2021:

“Following consultation with the authors we have been able to retrieve the original lab books from 22 years ago detailing the experiments that were carried out.

Representative images of the autoradiographs, as shown in the attached photograph, are provided as well as a photograph of the lab book experiment entry. As can be seen, the experiments presented in the two manuscripts were carried out at the same time and thus used the same control data. While data has indeed been duplicated (the control data) in the two manuscripts, it is the correct data that should be associated with the individual treatments. This does not impact interpretation of the results.”

The attached “representative image” does indeed show some autoradiograph, but it doesn’t match any of the two versions of the published gel.

Next, we return to Cohen’s and Alessi’s mentee Jose Lizcano, who arrived at MRC-PPU in 1998. The sleuth Claire Francis was commenting as Suricata suricatta, and failed to save and reuse that amazing PubPeer name, how unfortunate:

Jose M. LIZCANO , Nick MORRICE , Philip COHEN Regulation of BAD by cAMP-dependent protein kinase is mediated via phosphorylation of a novel site, Ser155 The Biochemical journal (2000) doi: 10.1042/bj3490547 

In November 2024, University of Dundee posted this reply on PubPeer:

“Thank you for your comments. The University of Dundee School of Life Sciences Research Integrity Group is examining the points raised. Should you wish to contact us directly please email SLS-RIG@dundee.ac.uk to discuss any matters that you would like us to be made aware of.“

A similar statement was posted on many other Dundee-related threads.

Jose Lizcano did postdoc with Cohen’s most prominent mentee, Dario Alessi, who, as reminder, became Cohen’s successor as MRC-PPU director. Alessi is now subject to a second investigation by the University of Dundee, after two of his papers were retracted due to a previous investigation. Those two retractions prompted the sleuth Claire Frances to screen more of Alessi’s papers, as I reported in November 2024 Shorts. Alessi’s PubPeer record currently stands at 27 papers. Like this, where the first and last authors were both Alessi’s postdocs at that time:

Paola De Los Heros , Dario R. Alessi , Robert Gourlay , David G. Campbell , Maria Deak , Thomas J. Macartney , Kristopher T. Kahle , Jinwei Zhang The WNK-regulated SPAK/OSR1 kinases directly phosphorylate and inhibit the K+–Cl− co-transporters The Biochemical journal (2014) doi: 10.1042/bj20131478

Alessi’s two retracted studies were Mora et al FEBS Letters 2005 and Mora et al Biochemical Journal 2005. Presumably, Alessi’s former postdoc Alfonso Mora got the full blame and the case was considered to be closed. Moro is back in Spain, working at CNIC/CNIO in Madrid, in the group of Guadalupe Sabio.

But now here is Mora again, with Alessi and that weirdo Lucocq:

Alfonso Mora , Anthony M Davies , Luc Bertrand , Isam Sharif , Grant R Budas , Sofija Jovanović , Véronique Mouton , C Ronald Kahn, John M Lucocq , Gillian A Gray , Aleksandar Jovanović , Dario R Alessi Deficiency of PDK1 in cardiac muscle results in heart failure and increased sensitivity to hypoxia The EMBO Journal (2003) doi: 10.1093/emboj/cdg469

You may have noticed a special celebrity guest, who is none other but Harvard’s mega-cheater C Ronald Kahn! And as it happens, Mora now collaborates with Kahn’s equally questionable Harvard colleague Bruce Spiegelman and Kahn’s Spanish associate Angela Valverde, who is a massive cheater:

Who will be blamed in Alessi’s second investigation, on papers without Mora? Very likely Lizcano:

Jose M. Lizcano, Maria Deak , Nick Morrice , Agnieszka Kieloch , C. James Hastie , Liying Dong , Mike Schutkowski , Ulf Reimer , Dario R. Alessi Molecular basis for the substrate specificity of NIMA-related kinase-6 (NEK6). Evidence that NEK6 does not phosphorylate the hydrophobic motif of ribosomal S6 protein kinase and serum- and glucocorticoid-induced protein kinase in vivo Journal of Biological Chemistry (2002) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m202042200 

Another vintage one by Lizcano and Alessi:

Since 2004, Jose Miguel Lizcano de Vega is back in Spain, and eventually became full professor at the Universitat Autonoma Barcelona and the Vall d’Hebron Campus. He says that the “ultimate goal of my research is […] to develop new molecular therapies that improve the survival and quality of life of cancer patients.” You saw the tools he uses to achieve that goal.

Speaking of Barcelona, somehow Cohen and the local cheater Angel Nebreda found each other. I wrote about Nebreda here:

So here is Cohen’s paper with Nebreda, with Cohen’s postdoc Cheung:

Ana Cuadrado, Vanesa Lafarga , Peter C F Cheung , Ignacio Dolado , Susana Llanos , Philip Cohen , Angel R Nebreda A new p38 MAP kinase-regulated transcriptional coactivator that stimulates p53-dependent apoptosis The EMBO Journal (2007) doi: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601657 

Nebreda also featured in the following article about dodgy research at Hannover Medical School (MHH) in Germany:

The Deputy Head of the Commission for Good Scientific Practice at MHH, Matthias Gaestel, is currently investigating that affair, where he is in fact a coauthor. Now, Gaestel is also coauthor on this paper from the Cohen lab at Dundee:

Heidi Mendoza , David G. Campbell , Kerry Burness , James Hastie , Natalia Ronkina , Jae-Hyuck Shim , J. Simon C. Arthur , Roger J. Davis , Matthias Gaestel , Gary L. Johnson , Sankar Ghosh , Philip Cohen Roles for TAB1 in regulating the IL-1-dependent phosphorylation of the TAB3 regulatory subunit and activity of the TAK1 complex The Biochemical journal (2008) doi: 10.1042/bj20071149 

As it happens, Alessi’s coauthor on the previously retracted paper Mora et al 2005 in Biochemical Journal was his fellow Dundee professor Calum Sutherland, who also happens to be a former mentee of Sir Philip Cohen, as PhD student and postdoc and funded by American Diabetes Association, the Wellcome Trust and Diabetes UK. Sutherland’s PubPeer record is currently at 7 papers, but it’s all quality art.

This for example:

In December, Sutherland announced on PubPpeer that the paper was corrected while blaming a student:

“I thank you for identifying this error from our paper in 2004. I am embarrassed that I missed this at time of publishing. Dr Patel left immaculate records o his work from 2002 and so I was able to establish where the error occurred. The journal has kindly published a correction with the original data…“

The Correction from 3 December 2024 informed that “these are two genuine errors”, the replacement gels kind of proved that MAPK loading controls derived from different gels, rendering the entire figure pointless at best. Sutherland however decided not to try and explain these two cases:

Now, what happened to young researchers at Sir Philip’s MRC-PPU who didn’t “perform” the way Alessi, Sutherland, Arthur, Lizcano, the Eyerses and others did? Or maybe, given Cohen’s God-like status, maybe biomedical science is supposed to be this kind of phony trash? It’s not like it’s about saving human lives or something, right?

As a bonus, allow me to show you some other papers from MRC-PPU. They belong to Lady Patricia Cohen, who died in 2020 aged 76. She was the wife of, well you can guess. Together Sir Philip and Lady Tricia founded the MRC-PPU in Dundee.

In October 2022 Shorts, I wrote about two expressions of concern for Lady Tricia’s papers. Here is one:

Graeme K. Carnegie , Judith E. Sleeman , Nick Morrice , C. James Hastie , Mark W. Peggie , Amanda Philp , Angus I. Lamond , Patricia T. W. Cohen Protein phosphatase 4 interacts with the Survival of Motor Neurons complex and enhances the temporal localisation of snRNPs Journal of Cell Science (2003) doi: 10.1242/jcs.00409 

“Background editing of the top Northern blot in Fig. 1 was reported anonymously to the journal. In addition, we identified splices in blots in several other figures. Owing to the period of time that has passed since experiments were conducted, original data are no longer available. However, many full blots for these figures are presented in the PhD thesis of the first author, revealing that most splices were made to excise empty lanes. The blurred blot in Fig. 1 is also present in the thesis, so we cannot determine whether blurring was introduced to obscure non-relevant bands between the two regions of interest.

Both the first and last authors of the paper are deceased; The University of Dundee and authors for whom contact details were available (J.E.S., J.H., A.I.L.) were supportive of the investigation.”

The Dundee scientist who received the full blame here was Lady Tricia’s former PhD student Graeme Carnegie. He died in 2014 aged only 40, a victim of leukaemia.

Here is the other Expression of Concern, coauthor Nick Morrice used to be MRC_PPU’s Head of Proteomics and is since 2014 with various biotechs:

Tamás ZEKE , Nick MORRICE , Cristina VÁZQUEZ-MARTIN , Patricia T. W. COHEN Human protein phosphatase 5 dissociates from heat-shock proteins and is proteolytically activated in response to arachidonic acid and the microtubule-depolymerizing drug nocodazole The Biochemical journal (2005) doi: 10.1042/bj20040690

“A reader has contacted the Biochemical Journal Editorial Board to draw attention to a potential concern regarding some of the data Figures in this article. The concerns raised are regarding band similarities in Figure 2B and evidence of gel splicing in this figure, Figure 4, and others. Due to the time elapsed between publication of the article and the concerns being raised, as well as the recent passing of the senior author, Lady Tricia Cohen, it will not be possible to conduct an investigation and source the original data to verify or allay the concerns raised.“

Expression of Concern (2022)

The editors will need to issue a second expression for even more concerns:

The late Lady Tricia has several papers on PubPeer, some were already corrected. Like this one, corrected already in 2011 but it might need a new correction, but with both Lady Tricia and Mark Peggie being dead it is unlikely:

Martin Voss , James Paterson , Ian R. Kelsall , Cristina Martín-Granados , C. James Hastie , Mark W. Peggie , Patricia T.W. Cohen Ppm1E is an in cellulo AMP-activated protein kinase phosphatase Cellular Signalling (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.cellsig.2010.08.010 

Flagged very recently, by same authors who include Sir Philip’s former postdoc Ian Kelsall, who still works at MRC-PPU:

James Paterson , Ian R Kelsall , Patricia T W Cohen Disruption of the striated muscle glycogen-targeting subunit of protein phosphatase 1: influence of the genetic background Journal of Molecular Endocrinology (2008) doi: 10.1677/jme-07-0120 

This was also corrected in September 2023 (highlight mine):

Shonagh Munro , Hugo Ceulemans , Mathieu Bollen , Julie Diplexcito , Patricia T.W. Cohen A novel glycogen-targeting subunit of protein phosphatase 1 that is regulated by insulin and shows differential tissue distribution in humans and rodents FEBS Journal (2005) doi: 10.1111/j.1742-4658.2005.04585.x  

That was a very stupid and not really credible explanation, but hey. I’ve seen much worse. No hope to have this corrected:

Cristina Martin-Granados , Amanda Philp , Senga K. Oxenham , Alan R. Prescott , Patricia T.W. Cohen Depletion of protein phosphatase 4 in human cells reveals essential roles in centrosome maturation, cell migration and the regulation of Rho GTPases The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology (2008) doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2008.03.021 

Here is a thought. Maybe Sir Philip and his private and scientific family are not that great. Maybe the University of Dundee has a serious problem.

Note: some of the above material was previously published in various issues of Friday Shorts.

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