Research integrity University Affairs

The elusive Margot Zöller

Celebrating the German cancer research maverick Margot Zöller of Heidelberg.

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by Leonid Schneider
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In May 2024 Shorts, I wrote about some very dodgy papers by the retired cancer researcher of the University of Heidelberg, Margot Zöller. The affair proved worse than originally thought, with around 40 bad papers on PubPeer and animal experiments lacking ethics approval because it was allegedly destroyed! The first paper has been retracted now.

Zöller is 81 years old and retired. She used to be professor at the University of Karlsruhe, and run a lab and a department at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, at the same time a certain Klaus-Michael Debatin was professor there, in company of a certain Simone Fulda. At some point, Zöller transferred to the University of Heidelberg and their Medical School.

Zöller never directly collaborated with the duo Debatin and Fulda, although there was once a collaboration with another mentee of Debatin at DKFZ, Ingrid Herr, see for example a DKFZ press release from 2010, where broccoli extract proved to be effective against cancer (Rausch et al 2010). Herr is now professor at the University Clinic Heidelberg, later on, data manipulations were found in her papers but she did manage to convince me at that time to have been a naive victim of someone else’s fraud. Read here:

Zöller’s case is very usual. All bad scientists I know profited from the fake science they published. Until very recently, Debatin and Fulda used to be the rulers of German science, presiding over universities, funding agencies and academies. Yet Zöller never reached any heights. She was in fact a typical science nerd.

An old article in the German national newspaper Zeit from 1992 mentioned her sabbatical stay at Institut Pasteur in France:

“Margot Zöller spends fourteen hours a day in the laboratory, seven days a week, and is only reminded by the public transport system – “I can’t miss the last metro” – that it’s closing time in Paris at some point. She loves her work, “I just enjoy it,” as she says.
She rejects the obvious suspicion of being a workaholic. She is only addicted to knowledge – up to the ruthlessness against herself.”

DKFZ (2014)

That Zeit article celebrated the then 49-year-old Zöller on her work-intensive sabbatical in Pasteur Institut in Paris, as a feminist and a rebel against patriarchy, who never cared about networking and academic success, even mentioning that she joined the student protesters in 1968.

Zöller eventually became a German authority of extracellular vesicles, a society award was named after her. Her research speciality was cell surface proteins, especially CD44.

The first Zöller papers were flagged on PubPeer already in 2018, by Indigofera tanganyikensis. Here is something in Oncotarget, a fake science journal by fake scientists for fake scientists:

Rahel Philip , Sarah Heiler , Wei Mu , Markus W. Büchler, Margot Zöller, Florian Thuma Claudin-7 promotes the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in human colorectal cancer Oncotarget (2015) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.2858 

Indigofera tanganyikensis: “In figure 1 some of the western immunoblots are blank. Duplication of data in figure 3, 6 and 7.”
Fig 6 & 7
Fig 6

In 2024, another PubPeer user found more:

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Figure 8: Unexpected overlap between different experimental conditions.”

Worth mentioning that Markus Büchler was before his retirement in March 2023 Chairman of the Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Heidelberg, he is also coauthor of that broccoli paper by Zöller and Herr, Rausch et al 2010. You will soon see Zöller continued collaborating with Büchler’s mentee and deputy, Thilo Hackert.

This other typical Oncotarget paper was also initially flagged by Indigofera tanganyikensis, and then other sleuths joined in:

Shijing Yue, Wei Mu , Ulrike Erb , Margot Zöller The tetraspanins CD151 and Tspan8 are essential exosome components for the crosstalk between cancer initiating cells and their surrounding Oncotarget (2015) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.2958 

Fig 5
Fig 3

Here another rather representative study by Zöller:

Vibuthi Singh , Ulrike Erb , Margot Zöller Cooperativity of CD44 and CD49d in Leukemia Cell Homing, Migration, and Survival Offers a Means for Therapeutic Attack The Journal of Immunology (2013) doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1301543 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “The blots in this paper should be examined carefully. I’ve annotated some of the unexpected similarities.”

Here, Zöller’s collaborators are now retired professors, Michael Trendelenburg of DKFZ and Klaus Preissner of University of Giessen, while Günter Lochnit continues running Preissner’s lab. The first author and Zöller’s former postdoc Irina Nazarenko is now professor at the University Clinic Freiburg in Germany.

Irina Nazarenko , Sanyukta Rana , Alexandra Baumann , Jessica McAlear , Andrea Hellwig , Michael Trendelenburg , Günter Lochnit, Klaus T Preissner, Margot Zöller Cell surface tetraspanin Tspan8 contributes to molecular pathways of exosome-induced endothelial cell activation Cancer Research (2010) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-09-2470 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Figure 6: TF and vWF, these images of gel electrophoresis look near identical to me, there may be a slight difference in vertical stretch.”
“Figure 6, […] the overlap between the images of cells in the upper and lower half is unexpected”

And here is the one which was now retracted, having been flagged on PubPeer in May 2024. It features Hackert and has two corresponding authors, Zöller and Claudia Pitzer, now Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral Core at the University of Heidelberg’s Medical School.

Kun Zhao , Zhe Wang , Thilo Hackert , Claudia Pitzer, Margot Zöller Tspan8 and Tspan8/CD151 knockout mice unravel the contribution of tumor and host exosomes to tumor progression Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR (2018) doi: 10.1186/s13046-018-0961-6 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Figure 1e: Some of the images which should show different experimental conditions or cell types are more similar than expected.”
Fig 3c
Mycosphaerella arachidis: “There are several western blots that are unexpectedly similar in this paper, I will illustrate Figure 6d as an example”:

I became privy to a case summary by the publisher Springer Nature:

“Image Integrity issues were discovered on PubPeer. Proofig found several more apparent image duplications within and between figures 4, 6, 7 and 8. When the authors were asked to provide raw data and ethics approval, they initially said raw data could not be provided and it will take time to provide ethics approval documents. When we suggested that this may result in retraction, they said the raw data has been recovered, however this was not provided. […] the authors sent a correction request for seven figures to the Editor-in-Chief, but it does not seem like the raw data or the ethics approval documents were provided in this email either.”

Proofig – the Kolodkin-Gal family business

“Don’t let online controversies and aggressive blogs easily ruin everything you’ve worked for to build your reputation […] Whether the image issue is innocent or intentional, the outcome is still the same. Bloggers will attack that publication with image issues, which will damage your reputation and may even lead to a costly investigation. We are…

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On 16 January 2024, a retraction arrived:

“The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article. Image integrity concerns were raised regarding Figs. 1e, 3c, and Fig. 6d. Further image concerns were found during analysis by the publisher in Figs. 2, 4, 7 and 8. The authors suggested a correction to these seven figures and figure legends in the manuscript. The ethics approval documents could not be provided upon request. The Editor-in-Chief determined that such extensive corrections could not be made without peer review, and that confidence has been lost in the data supporting the conclusions of the article.

Author Kun Zhao has stated on behalf of all authors that all authors disagree with this retraction.”

Now, the paper speaks of mice in which tumours were induced using the cancerogenic substance 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA), the mice were then sacrificed for analysis. And the authors apparently didn’t have an ethics approval for that!

Original photo © Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg

I approached the University of Heidelberg, to ask how common it is for this elite German university to experiment on animals without an ethics approval. I even contacted the university’s animal protection officer, who never replied. Eventually, Julia Bird, Deputy Head of Corporate Communication of the University Clinic Heidelberg educated me. Sit down, and brace yourself:

“After clarifying the facts, we can inform you that all necessary permits for the experiments […] have been properly requested and approved. In accordance with the legal requirements, the associated documents were archived by the end of the retention period at the end of 2022 and then destroyed. The file number of the approval procedure together with the approval letter from the competent authority was sent to the journal last week and thus met a request from the journal.”

Madness. The retraction notice says that “ethics approval documents could not be provided upon request“, Zöller’s university says they did provide it, but only last week. Also, according to DFG guidelines and University of Heidleberg’s own data storage policies, research data must be stored for at least 10 years. This means, original data for Zhao et al 2018 must have been stored until at least 2028. Instead it was destroyed after merely 4 years in 2022. Together with the ethics approvals it seems!

This paper, where “Nude mice received orthotopic (ot) or subcutaneous (sc) tumor cell injections“, is even newer and in the same journal. Yet it was corrected. Zöller’s significant coauthor again is Thilo Hackert, who is since 2023 Chairman of the Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany:

Zhe Wang , Hanxue Sun , Jan Provaznik , Thilo Hackert, Margot Zöller Pancreatic cancer-initiating cell exosome message transfer into noncancer-initiating cells: the importance of CD44v6 in reprogramming Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (2019) doi: 10.1186/s13046-019-1129-8 

“Figure 3, 4, and 7: Multiple overlapping areas which are not expected to be similar. The blue rectangles should be examined closely, but I do believe they show the same area at different magnification and stretch.”

The Correction from 31 October 2024 replaced the offending figures:

“Following publication of the original article [1], the authors identified errors in the figures, specifically:

  • Figure 3i – A818v6kd + CIC-TEX VEGRF3
  • Figure 4g – A818 Casp9 and A818 v6kd MDR1
  • Figure 7f – A818 neg control and A818 + GEM CD44v6

The corrections do not have any effect on the results or conclusions of the paper.”

I asked the Editor-in-Chief Mauro Castelli if he saw an ethics approval for that study at least. He indicated that he didn’t, and only was dealing with the corrected figures. Later on, a member of the Springer Nature Research Integrity Team wrtote to me:

“We cannot share any details at this stage, but be assured that this is still under investigation“

I thought the case was closed with a successful correction?

Here another paper by Zöller and Hackert, where again “Animal experiments were Government-approved (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany)“:

Zhe Wang , Anja Von Au , Martina Schnölzer , Thilo Hackert, Margot Zöller CD44v6-competent tumor exosomes promote motility, invasion and cancer-initiating cell marker expression in pancreatic and colorectal cancer cells Oncotarget (2016) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.10580

Fig 5, by Mycosphaerella arachidis
“Figure 5E: MMP13 and TIMP2 are similar, […] These aren’t pixel-perfect matches, but they’re quite different MW so I wouldn’t expect those distinct shapes to be shared between them.”
“Figure 9: Unexpected overlap between different treatment conditions and staining.”

And another one by Hackert with Zöller, at least no mice used here:

Daisuke Kyuno , Nathalie Bauer , Martina Schnölzer , Jan Provaznik , Euard Ryschich , Thilo Hackert, Margot Zöller Distinct Origin of Claudin7 in Early Tumor Endosomes Affects Exosome Assembly International Journal of Biological Sciences (2019) doi: 10.7150/ijbs.35347 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “One of the western blots in Figure 3 has appeared in another paper by some of the same authors, where it was described as showing the results of a different experiment.”

The mistyped coauthor Eduard Ryschich is professor of medicine at University of Heidelberg. He is also on the other Zöller paper the western blot reappeared in, and that paper has other issues:

Daisuke Kyuno , Kun Zhao , Nathalie Bauer , Eduard Ryschich , Margot Zöller Therapeutic Targeting Cancer-Initiating Cell Markers by Exosome miRNA: Efficacy and Functional Consequences Exemplified for claudin7 and EpCAM Translational Oncology (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2018.08.021 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Figure 5D: Unexpected overlap between images which should show different experimental conditions.”

The following paper was done at DKFZ, the first author Sebastian Kuhn is now professor at the University of Mainz:

Sebastian Kuhn , Moritz Koch , Tobias Nübel , Markus Ladwein , Dalibor Antolovic , Pamela Klingbeil , Dagmar Hildebrand , Gerhard Moldenhauer , Lutz Langbein , Werner W. Franke , Jürgen Weitz, Margot Zöller A Complex of EpCAM, Claudin-7, CD44 Variant Isoforms, and Tetraspanins Promotes Colorectal Cancer Progression Molecular Cancer Research (2007) doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-06-0384 

Mycosphaerella arachidis “Figure 1: these are supposed to be the same samples with different staining, but is the level of similarity here really reasonable? In the red, green, and pink rectangles are near pixel-perfect matches.”
“Figure 6: Some of these western blots are more similar than expected for different cell lines.”

Years ago, I tried to reach out to the coauthor Jürgen Weitz, now Head of Department of Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at the University Hospital of TU Dresden. It was about Weitz’s Nature paper with Sonia Melo and Raghu Kalluri. Read about that case here:

Weitz never replied, also now, he is a very important, a very busy, and a very well-paid man. And as such, he has no time to read boring stuff on PubPeer.

Zöller never to me either, although I even contacted her under her private email address. And the University Clinic Heidelberg announced to me in May 2024:

“Unfortunately we have no contact to Professor Zöller“

That was obviously a lie. Zöller herself commented on the Kuhn et al 2007 PubPeer thread in July 2024:

“Dear Editor, in response to your concerns on the above mentioned manuscript published in 2007 in MolCancerResearch, I have to admitt that all data were deleted 10 years after publication. In addition, I have retired more than 5 years ago. Accordingly, there is no longer any possibility to make any corrections. I seriously apologize
With kind regards Margot Zöller“

Her last research paper was Wu et al 2020, as corresponding author even, and published after Zöller’s declared retirement in 2019.

She also replied on another PubPeer thread, again on an older DKFZ paper, while contradicting the above:

Thorsten Jung , Donatello Castellana , Pamela Klingbeil , Ines Cuesta Hernández , Mario Vitacolonna , David J. Orlicky, Steve R. Roffler, Pnina Brodt, Margot Zöller CD44v6 Dependence of Premetastatic Niche Preparation by Exosomes Neoplasia (2009) doi: 10.1593/neo.09822 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Western blots without signal show the same distinctive pattern of noise. The brightness is not always the same. I am concerned that we are not seeing genuine images of negative signal, but the same single negative panel displayed multiple times.”

This was Zöller’s PubPeer reply from May 2024:

“I, Margot Zöller, retired in 2016. Thus, all data were stored for 5 years and then eliminated. However, all blots were performed by Thorsten Jung and I have seen and evaluated all full length blots. I remember that I was surprised by the similarity of several blots (not only negative ones. But Thorsten Jung showed me the original gels with the date of performance. Thus, without question, the presented data are from independent experiments”

Now she says she retired in 2016, not in 2019! Funny, in 2017, the university of Heidelberg celebrated Zöller’s research as a breakthrough in cancer diagnostics, with no less than “100% accuracy“, and, unusual for a retiree: “Prof. Dr. Zöller is currently committed to the clinical testing of this very promising approach.”

Also note this time Zöller claimed that the data was destroyed 5 years after publication, while for her older papers it was 10 years. Go figure why.

Anyway, this Thorsten Jung will have to answer for much more….

The middle author Wolfgang Gross is still in Heidelberg and works these days in the department of the aforementioned Ingrid Herr:

Thorsten Jung , Wolfgang Gross, Margot Zöller CD44v6 Coordinates Tumor Matrix-triggered Motility and Apoptosis Resistance Journal of Biological Chemistry (2011) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m110.208421 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 3: six sets of micrographs overlap (boxes of same colour), but are supposed to represent different genotypes, treatments and stainings.”
“Figure 2B and Figure 7B: two actin controls are the same blot (red boxes), but conditions are different (yellow boxes).”
“Two blots of Figure 5D representing β4 reappear in Figure 8B where they describe c-raf (yellow and green boxes). Between figures the blots were slightly rescaled vertically.
Also an actin control from Figure 5D reappears in 8B flipped horizontally (blue boxes), but the conditions are different.”
Aneurus inconstans: “A myriad of blots across Figures 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B, 7C and 8A were reused to descibe different proteins in different conditions (boxes of same colour). In several occasions the blots have been also rescaled.”

Outrageous, don’t you agree?

More bad papers by Zöller have been flagged by the pseudonymous sleuth Aneurus Inconstans. Here, the elusive emeritus replied again, on a study with Zöller’s colleagues from University Clinic Heidelberg:

Kai Wei, Mao Li , Margot Zöller, Meng Wang, Arianeb Mehrabi, Katrin Hoffmann Targeting c-MET by Tivantinib through synergistic activation of JNK/c-jun pathway in cholangiocarcinoma Cell Death & Disease (2019) doi: 10.1038/s41419-019-1460-1 

Aneurus inconstans: “An actin control in Figure 5A also appears in Figure 3A of Wang et al. 2020 (red boxes), an article published one and a half years later by overlapping authors, where the cell line was different (yellow boxes). The two versions of the actin control have different vertical dimensions.”

The Wang et al. 2020 paper was not coauthored by Zöller though, but by her colleague Katrin Hoffmann (now CMO of a Swiss hospital group) and their then-boss Markus Büchler. It contains further gel band duplications. on 1 February 2025, Zöller replied on “her” PubPeer thread:

“I am only one of the coauthors and was introducing the first author in experimental methods. I have nothing to do with the published experiments. Please contact the corresponding author“

If anything, this PubPeer commenting again proves that the claim by the University Heidelberg that they have no way to contact Zöller was a lie.

Here Zöller is however the corresponding author, yet she chose to remain silent:

Florian Thuma, Honoré Ngora , Margot Zöller The metastasis‐associated molecule C4.4A promotes tissue invasion and anchorage independence by associating with the alpha6beta4 integrin Molecular Oncology (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.molonc.2013.05.002 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 1F and 4B: four sets of images are duplicated (boxes of same color), but they are supposed to represent different genotypes, treatments and marker stainings.”

Here the first author Claudia Paret is now head of a diagnostics lab at the University Clinic Mainz.

Claudia Paret , Mehdi Bourouba , Alexander Beer , Kaoru Miyazaki , Martina Schnölzer , Sabine Fiedler , Margot Zöller Ly6 family member C4.4A binds laminins 1 and 5, associates with galectin‐3 and supports cell migration International Journal of Cancer (2005) doi: 10.1002/ijc.20977 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 2a: five micrographs overlap with one another, but the stainings are supposed to be different (yellow boxes). The overlapping areas are highlighted by boxes of same colour. The areas highlighted with green and blue boxes are mirrored horizontally.”
“Figure 2b: two micrographs overlap (magenta boxes), but the stainings (yellow boxes) are supposed to be different.”

In case you started to miss Thilo Hackertr:

Daisuke Kyuno, Kun Zhao , Martina Schnölzer, Jan Provaznik , Thilo Hackert, Margot Zöller Claudin7‐dependent exosome‐promoted reprogramming of nonmetastasizing tumor cells International Journal of Cancer (2019) doi: 10.1002/ijc.32312 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 5e: two micrographs overlap (blue boxes), but they are supposed to represent different samples (yellow boxes).”

Just a brief explainer: In German-speaking scientific culture, clinic directors like Hackert and his patron Büchler must always receive a coauthorship, it’s like with protection money. Those papers are then their papers, on every grant application and every pay rise and promotion and every obscenely paid pharma industry gig these alpha men pocket thanks to their enormous publication lists.

But when trouble arises, these papers immediately cease to be their papers. This is what University of Heidelberg and the national funding agency DFG will determine for Hackert and Büchler, should they ever bother to investigate the Zöller affair, that is.

More Hackert and Zöller, who is again corresponding author.

Kun Zhao , Ulrike Erb, Thilo Hackert, Margot Zöller, Shijing Yue Distorted leukocyte migration, angiogenesis, wound repair and metastasis in Tspan8 and Tspan8/CD151 double knockout mice indicate complementary activities of Tspan8 and CD51 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2017.11.007 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 3B: two aortic rings images are identical (red boxes), but they are supposed to be from WT and dbko mice respectively (yellow boxes). Moreover, the neighbouring images marked with blue question marks also appear to be different takes of the same aortic ring, therefore cannot be from WT and dbko mice either.”

The last author Shijing Yue used to be Zöller’s mentee in Heidelberg and is now professor in China. Another one by him:

Sanyukta Rana , Shijing Yue, Daniela Stadel , Margot Zöller Toward tailored exosomes: the exosomal tetraspanin web contributes to target cell selection The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology (2012) doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2012.06.018 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 1A: the CD151 and Neuropilin blots are the same one (red boxes), they were just rescaled and cropped differently.”

Ulrike Erb is still Clinical Research Associate at the University Clinic Heidelberg, here two more papers she coauthored with Zöller:

Amelie Pajip Megaptche , Ulrike Erb, Markus Wolfgang Büchler, Margot Zöller CD44v10, osteopontin and lymphoma growth retardation by a CD44v10‐specific antibody Immunology and Cell Biology (2014) doi: 10.1038/icb.2014.47 
Ulrike Erb, Pia Freyschmidt-Paul , Margot Zöller Tolerance induction by hair-specific keratins in murine alopecia areata Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2013) doi: 10.1189/jlb.0413196 

More of what looks like falsified flow cytometry:

Mario Schubert, Nicolás Herbert, Isabel Taubert , Dan Ran , Rahul Singh, Volker Eckstein , Mario Vitacolonna, Anthony D. Ho, Margot Zöller Differential survival of AML subpopulations in NOD/SCID mice Experimental Hematology (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2010.10.010

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 6A: two flow cytometry panels are identical (blue boxes), but are supposed to represent different conditions.”
“Figure 6B: two sets of panels appear much more similar than expected (green and red boxes).”
Zoom in
Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 3A: two micrographs are identical (magenta boxes), although the colours’ brightness was slightly modified. Those micrographs are supposed to represent different immunostainings (CD49c and CD49d).”

Worth mentioning that the first author Mario Schubert is now chief oncologist at a private hospital in Germany and the penultimate author Anthony Ho is Medical Director of Department Medicine V at the University Clinic Heidelberg.

Here another paper by Ho, Zöller, and her mentees Schubert and Mario Vitacolonna, an eternal postdoc now in Mannheim:

Mario Vitacolonna, Mario Schubert , Nicolás Herbert , Isabel Taubert , Rahul Singh , Anthony Ho , Margot Zöller Improved T and B cell recovery by the transfer of slowly dividing human hematopoietic stem cells Leukemia Research (2010) doi: 10.1016/j.leukres.2009.10.015 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 4C and 5D: two micrographs are identical (green boxes), but the tissue they come from is supposed to be either thymus or spleen (yellow boxes).”

More Vitacolonna:


Margot Zöller, Kevin J. McElwee , Mario Vitacolonna , Rolf Hoffmann Apoptosis resistance in peripheral blood lymphocytes of alopecia areata patients Journal of Autoimmunity (2004) doi: 10.1016/j.jaut.2004.08.002 


Tobias Weiss, Mario Vitacolonna , Margot Zöller The efficacy of an IL-1alpha vaccine depends on IL-1RI availability and concomitant myeloid-derived suppressor cell reduction Journal of immunotherapy (2009) doi: 10.1097/cji.0b013e31819b7b9e

A paper with Zöller’s mentee Nazarenko and her collaborator at DKFZ, Peter Angel, who just happens to me the Ombudsman for research integrity there:

Frank Fries , Irina Nazarenko, Jochen Hess, Andreas Claas , Peter Angel, Margot Zöller  CEBPβ, JunD and c‐Jun contribute to the transcriptional activation of the metastasis‐associated C4.4A gene International Journal of Cancer (2007) doi: 10.1002/ijc.22447

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 1D: two CAT activity assays appear much more similar than expected (red boxes), but cell types are supposed to be different.”

Now some dodgy western blots from Zöller lab:

Rachid Marhaba, Mehdi Bourouba , Margot Zöller CD44v7 interferes with activation-induced cell death by up-regulation of anti-apoptotic gene expression Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2003) doi: 10.1189/jlb.1202615 

Aneurus inconstans: “The same three bands (flipped vertically and stretched) appear in both Figure 5B and 6B (magenta boxes), and they describe either IM-7 or Ezrin (yellow boxes).”

Rachid Marhaba, now senior researcher at GlaxoSmithKline in Munich, educated the sleuth on PubPeer:

“The shape of the BSA bands in both magenta squares does not look identical in both blots even after the hypothetical flipping. “

Maarten van Kampen made an animation, but Marhaba dismissed it as scientifically ignorant. And then educated Maarten that image editing software wasn’t even yet invented “in the early 2000′“.

Surely Marhaba (or maybe Professor Nazarenko?) can also explain why these FACS plots are in their expert view not identical:

Rachid Marhaba , Irina Nazarenko, Daniela Knöfler , Eli Reich , Elena Voronov, Mario Vitacolonna , Dagmar Hildebrand, Elena Elter , Ron N. Apte, Margot Zöller Opposing effects of fibrosarcoma cell‐derived IL‐1α and IL‐1β on immune response induction International Journal of Cancer (2008) doi: 10.1002/ijc.23503 

And why these immunohistochemistry images are also never identical:

Margot Zöller, Pooja Gupta , Rachid Marhaba , Mario Vitacolonna , Pia Freyschmidt-Paul Anti-CD44-mediated blockade of leukocyte migration in skin-associated immune diseases Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2007) doi: 10.1189/jlb.0107063 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 5: two micrographs overlap (green boxes), therefore cannot represent different immunostainings (anti-CCL2 and anti-CCL17) and different genotypes (AA/DTH and DTH).”

And these IHC images, again with Zöller’s mentee Pia Freyschmidt-Paul, who runs a private practice for dermatology while insisting to be a professor without being really affiliated with any university:

Pooja Gupta , Pia Freyschmidt-Paul , Mario Vitacolonna , Sabine Kiessling , Susanne Hummel , Dagmar Hildebrand , Rachid Marhaba , Margot Zöller A chronic contact eczema impedes migration of antigen-presenting cells in alopecia areata The Journal of investigative dermatology (2006) doi: 10.1038/sj.jid.5700328 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 4c: two micrographs overlap (green boxes), but the stainings are supposed to be different (red boxes).”

The pharma employee Marhaba is one of the more successful mentees of Zöller’s. Some others featuring in this article remain eternal postdocs (even if sometimes with a better job description), or left science for rather unexciting jobs.

Niko Föger, Rachid Marhaba , Margot Zöller Involvement of CD44 in cytoskeleton rearrangement and raft reorganization in T cells Journal of Cell Science (2001) doi: 10.1242/jcs.114.6.1169 

Mycosphaerella arachidis: “Figure 2A: Unexpected similarity between different experimental conditions. Figure 3 repeats the same panels.”

Another lovely paper by Prof. Dr. med. Freyschmidt‐Paul:

Vibhuti Singh , Ulrike Mueller , Pia Freyschmidt‐Paul , Margot Zöller Delayed type hypersensitivity‐induced myeloid‐derived suppressor cells regulate autoreactive T cells European Journal of Immunology (2011) doi: 10.1002/eji.201141696 

Aneurus inconstans: “Figure 4E: three bands appear twice in this figure (red and blue boxes), describing ZAP70 and lck at the same time.

Figure 5D: the same blot has been used to represent Akt and actin (magenta boxes), just brightness/exposure is a bit different.”

As it appears, the University of Heidelberg decided simply to sit this out. They tell crazy tales about data and even ethics approvals being “legally” destroyed 4 years after publication. Or that they have no way to contact Zöller, while she herself comments on PubPeer and communicates with editors.

This elite university, one of the oldest in the world, just doesn’t care, they see absolutely nothing wrong with Zöller’s research. Zöller retired years ago, everything is ancient history now.

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13 comments on “The elusive Margot Zöller”

  1. Aneurus's avatar
    Aneurus
    February 5, 2025

    The severity of the cases reported in this article wouldn’t be surprising for small universities in Italy, Spain, or France, at least for those people who approach the problem of science fraud in a very superficial way. Instead, for regular For Better Science readers, this incredible level of fraud, in one of the most important universities in Germany, should not come as a surprise.

    Nowhere in Europe such a small city (or big town) can match the amount of research institutions that Heidelberg hosts. In addition to the University, the oldest in Germany and founded in 1386, Heidelberg hosts also the biggest EMBL headquarter, the DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center) and four Max Planck Institutes (Law, Astronomy, Nuclear Physics but also Medical Research). On top of that, in Heidelberg are located several publishing houses: Springer, EMBO Press and FEBS Press.

    The amount of money coming from research enterprises that circulate around Heidelberg is huge, especially from medical research. Wandering through the lovely streets of the city center, you can come across hundreds, perhaps thousands, of private medical practices of all sizes and specialties. All those medical doctors were likely studying at Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg. Let’s think about it.

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  2. Sholto David's avatar
    Sholto David
    February 5, 2025

    Well she did profit from all this quite handsomely, a comfortable career, interviews in magazines, respect of her peers, and no doubt a generous pension. Best of all she was allowed to torture animals which seems to be a particular perk for some academics. Sure, she never tried to run a university or department, but a “normal” career as a run-of-the-mill academic is pretty great, especially if you’re not bound by the normal rules, no failed experiments, no worries about being wrong! She won’t even have to try to pretend to clean up her own mess. Congratulations Margot, it’s masterclass, many can learn from her approach.

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    • Multiplex's avatar
      Multiplex
      February 17, 2025

      Many have learned it long ago, and now even become careless enough to admit it in confidential e-mails:

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  3. ranip's avatar
    ranip
    February 7, 2025

    Good points. ‘‘In German-speaking scientific culture, clinic directors..must always receive a co-authorship..Those papers are then their papers, on every grant application and every pay rise and promotion…”. Ironically, it is the very same group who provides their expertise or investigates cases of plagiarism-‘taking someone else’s work as one’s own‘.

    How is it possible that including these unearned papers in grant applications is never considered misrepresentation of facts ? If one claims that he can fly, he can’t impress anyone because everyone knows that this is technically not possible. When one day is 24 hours, claiming substantial contribution (to meet authorship criteria) in ca. 450 publications is also technically not possible, yet it is believed and appreciated. Well, when the acceptable range of publications for the research team lead is calculated as ca. 43-59 by ‘Science Guardians’ and this calculation is based on science, then anything is possible. https://scienceguardians.com/resources/main/team-publication-analyzer/)

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    • Leonid Schneider's avatar
      Leonid Schneider
      February 7, 2025

      All good, but you referenced Science Guardians, a troll website run by Wafik El Deiry.

      Wafik El Deiry, the anti-qualified Science Guardian

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      • ranip's avatar
        ranip
        February 7, 2025

        Yes, that’s the problem with the website. Is finding ‘annual’ publication of ca.43-59 papers by the research team lead acceptable, guarding science or guarding those clinic directors and alike who have been ‘taking someone else’s work as their own’ ? If this is how the guardians will guard science, then ‘back to the beginning’.

        I forgot to add ‘annually’ at the end of the sentence of the last message – and that made it sound benign.

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  4. ranip's avatar
    ranip
    February 7, 2025

    *ca. 43-59 ‘annually !’

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  5. Tibo's avatar
    Tibo
    March 20, 2025

    I worked in this lab as a PhD around 2000 and left as I could not take it anymore 2 years later.

    The technique was the usual one (seen in so many labs): refuse any results that were not fitting to the “gut feeling of her majesty”. You were asked to repeat until you got the result she expected and blaming you for everything that did not work her way. But she could change her mind and ask you why you were wasting your time on stupid experiments and refused to admit she asked you to. Most of the time you were left without any clear direction. At some point the threats were coming. She could shift you to a contract were you were less played or just cut the money.

    Many students left science after this experience but needed their diploma so they gave her the results she wanted… My project was based on a protein published at 94 kDa while it was actually 74kDa, it took me 6 months to have her admit this fact (you could see that the size ladder was wrongly labeled on the paper). She just mentioned it was a pity as 94 was better fitting a narrative she had for this paper, period. The student who made the experiment left (to be a banker, I think) and never replied my e-mails

    A small anecdote: Margot came to the lab at 7h and left at 23h. Indeed, she was a real nerd. She was feeding on 1 apple and 3 packs of cigarettes a day. She was smoking all the time everywhere in the lab (in the DKFZ!!!) and no one was saying a thing. She was even smoking while working at the laminar flow bench!

    This time was really a bad one in my life, everything was arbitrary, unproductive and childish. She was one of the few female Lab head and was therefore a holly cow in the DKFZ. She was a product of her time, though, being a female in science was not really a job for balanced temperaments. I hated her so much and she did so much damage to science!

    I had very happy I left this crappy hell and I could find many new nice and productive lab bosses though my modest career!

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    • Aneurus's avatar
      Aneurus
      March 20, 2025

      Thank you.

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    • Calacatta's avatar
      Calacatta
      June 24, 2025

      Wow, i was a predoctoral student in the lab of one of Margot mentee’s ( I will not say the name) and experienced very similar situation. I can see now where she get it from. It makes me feel less alone with my awful experience. Thanks a lot for sharing!

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  6. Aneurus's avatar
    Aneurus
    June 26, 2025

    RETRACTION to Rana et al. 2012 Int J Biochem Cell Biol, June 2025:

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1357272512002178?via%3Dihub

    https://pubpeer.com/publications/1C2D2CC348ABE8F5202CC9FFD6B5A2

    This is the 3rd retraction for the elusive Margot Zöller. We wish many more to come.

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