Iran-Man of Sussex and Wonder-Woman of Amsterdam

When privileged old white male professors reach a certain age, they start feeling entitled to all possible things. Like extra salaries, extra titles and certainly to extra papers with their name on them. Asian universities eagerly provide remote chairs to greedy white professors, and their affiliated papermills hand out gift authorships on papermill trash like candies to children. The best bit: their European or North American universities generally don’t mind what these old men are up to.

Thus, meet Professor Gordon Ferns (DSc MD FRCPath FRCP MRCS SFHEA Dip Hlth Mgt FRSA), Deputy Dean at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Head of Department of Medical Education at University of Sussex in UK, and holder of “Visiting Chairs at the Universities of Surrey, Keele, Tehran and Mashhad“, the latter two obviously in Iran.

Regular readers of For Better Science might recall other white European men who suffer from addiction to Asian papermills, including the Rector of the University of Uppsala in Sweden, Anders Hagfeldt. Probably the worst of them is Ferns’s fellow Brit John F Kennedy:

Ferns is, as you already hear, attracted to Iran. Here is his institutional profile at Mashhad University, he also sits on the Editorial Board of Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine, which is published by Mashhad University. The visiting professorship in Tehran ended in 2022. Ferns’s papermilling friends there are keen to have a respectable Englishman as their coauthor, to facilitate editorial acceptance and to ensure against possible retraction. And Ferns is happy as well, a clever boy like him can never have too many research papers. Problem only arises when some of those get retracted.

And here is one of these retracted Iranian collaborations:

Sadaf Ghanaatgar‐Kasbi , Forouzan Amerizadeh , Farzad Rahmani, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian, Majid Khazaei, Gordon A. Ferns , Amir Avan AMP‐kinase inhibitor dorsomorphin reduces the proliferation and migration behavior of colorectal cancer cells by targeting the AKT/mTOR pathway IUBMB Life (2019) doi: 10.1002/iub.2136 

There were also irrelevant citations of course. The coauthor Majid Khazaei , professor at Mashhad University, replied on PubPeer and dismissed all criticism, including on image duplications: “It doesn not show the similarties or overlab.” That dude has almost 50 ridiculously fraudulent papers on PubPeer.

The paper was retracted on 5 January 2025:

“The retraction has been agreed following an investigation into concerns raised by a third party which revealed that the TBHP image and the Dorso 5μM image in Figure 3b contained an overlap with images published elsewhere by some of the same authors. In both instances of duplication, the images were used to represent different experimental conditions. Furthermore, the western blot in Figure 4D has been inappropriately edited and there is evidence that the bands have been spliced without clearly marking the splice sites. The authors provided an explanation and some data but this was not considered sufficient to address the concerns. As a result, the editors have lost confidence in the data presented and consider the conclusions substantially compromised. The authors disagree with the retraction.”

Here is that other paper where the image was reused, it was authored by Ferns, Khazaie and a whole circus troupe of Iranians. Another coauthor is Elisa Giovannetti, associate professor at VU Amsterdam Medical Center in The Netherlands, and full professor and AIRC-funded group leader at University of Pisa in Italy. Which prove me all wrong, it is not only old white men who seek instant gratification from Asian papermills, but also occasional youngish white women:

Fereshteh Asgharzadeh, Asma Mostafapour , Safieh Ebrahimi, Forouzan Amerizadeh , Reihaneh Sabbaghzadeh , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Maryam Fakhraei , Alieh Farshbaf , Gordon A. Ferns , Elisa Giovannetti , Amir Avan , Majid Khazaei Inhibition of angiotensin pathway via valsartan reduces tumor growth in models of colorectal cancer Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2022.115951 

Khazaei explained:

“…data were reused across multiple experiments based on ethical committee guidelines to minimize animal use. The experiments were conducted under consistent conditions, including the same age, gender, and experimenter for the animals.”

In this regard it is rather importnant to know that the recurrent coauthor Amir Avan has almost 50 fake papers on PubPeer, and even more importantly: he also happens to be Giovannetti’s former PhD student (graduated in 2014), after that he remained visiting fellow at her VU Amsterdam. Avan is now professor at Mashad University, like Khazaei. We don’t know how Avan and his friends turned Ferns into an Iran-Man, but it’s clear how Giovannetti mutated into Avander-Woman. Yes, I know the pun is bad, but not as bad as their papers!

Here is one of their papers mentioned above, Ferns is again a proud coauthor. He wants to cure cancer with aluminium nanoparticles:

Khadije Fasihi , Forouzan Amerizadeh , Reihaneh Sabbaghzadeh , Maryam Heydari , Farzad Rahmani , Asma Mostafapour , Majid Khazaei , Elisa Rasouli , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Gordon A Ferns , Majid Rezayi, Amir Avan The therapeutic potential of γ-AlO nanoparticle containing 5-fluorouracil in the treatment of colorectal cancer Tissue and Cell (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.tice.2022.101755 

In this regard, it is funny that those animal protection activists claim to have induced tumours in mice which were at least half the size of the entire animal (see Hashemzehi et al 2021) or this:

Milad Hashemzehi , Negar Yavari , Farzad Rahmani , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Atena Soleimani , Neda Shakour , Amir Avan, Farzin Hadizadeh, Maryam Fakhraie , Reyhaneh Moradi Marjaneh , Gordon A. Ferns , Parham Reisi , Mikhail Ryzhikov , Majid Khazaei, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian Inhibition of transforming growth factor-beta by Tranilast reduces tumor growth and ameliorates fibrosis in colorectal cancer EXCLI Journal (2021) doi: 10.17179/excli2020-2932 

Funny because the results are made-up and most likely no mice suffered for these fabrications.

Here is another one by the animal lovers Khazaei, Giovannetti and Ferns, again joined by a russian American named Mikhail Ryzhikov (who since 2022 works at Thermo Fisher in St Louis):

Farzad Rahmani , Milad Hashemzehi, Amir Avan, Farnaz Barneh, Fereshteh Asgharzadeh, Reyhaneh Moradi Marjaneh , Atena Soleimani , Mohammadreza Parizadeh , Gordon A. Ferns , Majid Ghayour Mobarhan , Mikhail Ryzhikov , Amir Reza Afshari , Mohammad Reza Ahmadian , Elisa Giovannetti , Mohieddin Jafari, Majid Khazaei, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian Rigosertib elicits potent anti-tumor responses in colorectal cancer by inhibiting Ras signaling pathway Cellular Signalling (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.cellsig.2021.110069 

To celebrate Giovannetti’s selfless “woman, life, freedom” struggle, here is an earlier retraction for her and her Iranian associates, plus Ferns:

Ghazaleh Khalili-Tanha, Hamid Fiuji , Masoumeh Gharib , Meysam Moghbeli , Nima Khalili-Tanha , Farzad Rahmani , Neda Shakour , Mina Maftooh , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian, Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Soodabeh Shahidsales , Kazem Anvari , M.R. Mozafari , Gordon A. Ferns , Jyotsna Batra, Elisa Giovannetti , Majid Khazaei, Amir Avan Dual targeting of TGF-β and PD-L1 inhibits tumor growth in TGF-β/PD-L1-driven colorectal carcinoma Life Sciences (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121865 

There were many other issues. Last author Avan provided a lenghty explanation assuring that “these clarifications do not change the core meaning or impact of the paper“. Khazaei assured: “we do not expect to see different effect in all conditions in everyday“. Ghazaleh Khalili-Tanha added: “These pictures have been taken by Mobile phones, not professional cameras”.

Luckily the editors were unconvinced. The retraction from 16 October 2024 mentioned:

“The editors were alerted by anonymous readers to issues regarding image anomalies in the paper above that inspired discussions on Pubpeer: https://pubpeer.com/publications/0515AB8BB48F0FC364C80CC3D7176F. The editors contacted the corresponding authors to request raw data and explanation. The corresponding author replied that the similarities among the images are likely due to the dust on the screen or flash of the device, and copy-and-paste error of the names (control of HT-29 and control on Day 3 of the SW480 cells). The editors have carefully examined images alleged to be manipulated (Figure 2G and 3D) and determined that they no longer have confidence in the reliability of these data. Therefore, the editors decide to retract the article.”

Here they all are again, Ferns, Giovannetti, her student Avan, Khazaei and other Iranians:

Forouzan Amerizadeh , Farzad Rahmani , Mina Maftooh , Seyedeh-Najibeh Nasiri , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Elisa Giovannetti , Reyhaneh Moradi-Marjaneh , Reihaneh Sabbaghzadeh , Soodabeh Shahidsales , Mona Joudi-Mashhad , Majid Ghayour-Mobarhan , Gordon A Ferns , Majid Khazaei, Amir Avan Inhibition of the Wnt/b-catenin pathway using PNU-74654 reduces tumor growth in in vitro and in vivo models of colorectal cancer Tissue and Cell (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.tice.2022.101853 

Allow me a brief excursion to celebrate Avan’s PhD mentor Giovannetti. She wants you to admire her as a role model and champion for Women In Science, here is for example her relevant editorial for a papermill-infested Frontiers special issue, which Giovannetti co-edited, what coincidence, with the Italian cheater Annarosa Arcangeli (see March 2025 Shorts).

Giovannetti herself has 13 papers on PubPeer, many but not all with her student Avan and his Iranian gang. This non-coding RNA nonsense was authored by Dutch and Italians, and can’t be blamed on any Iranian papermills:

Elisa Giovannetti , Niccola Funel , Godefridus J. Peters, Marco Del Chiaro , Leyla A. Erozenci , Enrico Vasile , Leticia G. Leon , Luca E. Pollina , Annemieke Groen , Alfredo Falcone , Romano Danesi , Daniela Campani , Henk M. Verheul , Ugo Boggi MicroRNA-21 in pancreatic cancer: correlation with clinical outcome and pharmacologic aspects underlying its role in the modulation of gemcitabine activity Cancer Research (2010) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-09-4467 

I also wrote about Giovannetti’s cooperation with the Italian cheater Pier Giorgio Petronini in November 2024 Shorts.

Now, we return to our main hero, Gordon Ferns. He has almost 30 papers on PubPeer, all with Iranians and all feature Khazaei and Avan. Here another recent retraction for Ferns and his Iranian friends, maybe crocuses don’t cure cancer after all:

Forouzan Amerizadeh , Nastaran Rezaei , Farzad Rahmani , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Reyhaneh Moradi-Marjaneh , Hamid Fiuji , Nadia Boroumand , Abolfazl Nosrati-Tirkani , Majid Ghayour-Mobarhan , Gordon A. Ferns , Majid Khazaei , Amir Avan Crocin synergistically enhances the antiproliferative activity of 5-flurouracil through Wnt/PI3K pathway in a mouse model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer Journal of cellular biochemistry (2018) doi: 10.1002/jcb.27367 

The publisher didn’t believe Khazaei’s explanations that “data was reused across these experiments based on ethical committee guidelines to minimize animal use“, and issued this retraction on 23 April 2025:

“The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by third parties. Figure 6B was found to contain inappropriate splicing sites and methodological flaws. Additionally, in Figure 5A and 5a, no correlation was observed between samples at low and high magnification. The authors did not provide clarification on these issues or the original data. Accordingly, the article is retracted as the editors have lost confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the whole body of data presented in the article and consider its conclusions invalid. The authors have been informed of the decision of retraction.

In fact, the data from that retracted paper was reused by Ferns and the Iranians elsewhere, and that was also retracted:

Farzad Rahmani , Forouzan Amerizadeh , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Milad Hashemzehi , Seyedeh‐Najibeh Nasiri, Hamid Fiuji , Gordon A. Ferns , Majid Khazaei, Amir Avan PNU‐74654 enhances the antiproliferative effects of 5‐FU in breast cancer and antagonizes thrombin‐induced cell growth via the Wnt pathway Journal of Cellular Physiology (2019) doi: 10.1002/jcp.28104 

The retraction from 7 October 2024 went:

“The retraction has been agreed due to concerns raised by a third party on the data presented in the article. Specifically, image elements in Figure 1c were previously published by the same author group in a different scientific context. Additionally, the panels representing the histological staining corresponding to the “Control” and “5-FU” groups in Figure 3b were found to originate from the same biological sample. Finally, splicing sites have been detected within Figure 6b. The concerns were not satisfactorily addressed by the authors upon request. Accordingly, retraction is warranted as the editors have lost trust in the data presented in the article and in its conclusions. The corresponding author Majid Khazaei disagrees with the decision of retraction. No confirmation was obtained by the remaining co-authors.”

Coming back to Ryzhikov: his cooperation with Avan and the Iranians dates back to 2017 and continues to this day, surely making Thermo Fisher immensely proud. This paper by our russian friend, plus Ferns, Giovannetti and their beloved Iranians, was retracted in January 2025:

Farzad Rahmani , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Amir Avan , Farnaz Barneh , Mohammad Reza Parizadeh , Gordon A. Ferns , Mikhail Ryzhikov , Mohammad Reza Ahmadian , Elisa Giovannetti , Mohieddin Jafari , Majid Khazaei , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian Rigosertib potently protects against colitis-associated intestinal fibrosis and inflammation by regulating PI3K/AKT and NF-κB signaling pathways Life Sciences (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2020.117470 

The retraction from 8 January 2025 went:

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

The journal was alerted by a concerned reader regarding an associated PubPeer post: https://pubpeer.com/publications/1D23210B75FD8EC87B1AF35B308A6D, which reported that the control and colitis graphs appear to be identical with another article from the same group published in Journal of Cellular Physiology, 234 (2019) 11654-11661, https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.27823.

The editors requested the raw data of Fig. 8. The authors claimed that the local hard drive where the images were initially acquired and stored might lack sufficient capacity to hold all the data so that they were not capable of providing all the raw data of this figure.

The editors found the provided justification insufficient, lost confidence in the integrity of the data and have thus decided to retract the article.”

The mentioned paper by Ferns, Ryzhikov and the Iranians was flagged with an Expression of Concern a month ago:

Maryam M. Binabaj , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Amir Avan , Farzad Rahmani , Atena Soleimani , Mohammad R. Parizadeh , Gordon A. Ferns , Mikhail Ryzhikov , Majid Khazaei , Seyed M. Hassanian EW‐7197 prevents ulcerative colitis‐associated fibrosis and inflammation Journal of cellular physiology (2019) doi: 10.1002/jcp.27823 

“The Expression of Concern has been agreed due to concerns raised by the third party, which revealed inappropriate figure overlap in Figure 2(a), by the similar group of authors in different articles. While the corresponding author provided original data during the investigation, the reproduced control and colitis data (Figure 2a) are indeed considered unreliable as they were published elsewhere in a different scientific context. However, the authors have explained they conducted these experiments of the murine model of colitis using mice with the uniform characteristics including their age, species, and gender. More importantly, these experiments were conducted simultaneously by the same researchers in the same location, with the same molecular weight DSS, contributing to the consistency in the patterns observed. Furthermore, the Chair, Research Integrity Committee of the institution (Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran) has contacted the journal and confirmed that this article was a thesis independently conducted with different research aims, methodologies, and datasets in their university.”

Expression of Concern 20 April 2025

In this set of 5 papers, only one was retracted:

1. Fereshteh Asgharzadeh, Alireza Hashemzadeh , Farzad Rahmani , Atieh Yaghoubi , Seyedeh Elnaz Nazari , Amir Avan , Seyed Mahdi Hasanian Mehr , Saman Soleimanpour , Majid Khazaei Cerium oxide nanoparticles acts as a novel therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis through anti-oxidative mechanism Life Sciences (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119500 
2. Atieh Yaghoubi , Javid Davoodi , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh, Sajad Rezaie , Elnaz Nazari , Majid Khazaei, Saman Soleimanpour Therapeutic effect of an anti-tuberculosis agent, isoniazid, and its nano-isoform in ulcerative colitis International Immunopharmacology (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2021.107577 
3. Alireza Hashemzadeh , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Atieh Yaghoubi , Seyedeh Elnaz Nazari , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Amir Avan , Majid Rezaei , Saman Soleimanpour , Majid Khazaei Sulfasalazine colon-specific drug delivery by selenium nanoparticle Journal of Trace Elements and Minerals (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.jtemin.2022.100012 
4. Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Atieh Yaghoubi , Seyedeh Elnaz Nazari , Alireza Hashemzadeh , Seyed Mahdi Hasanian , Amir Avan , Ali Javandoost , Gordon A Ferns , Saman Soleimanpour , Majid Khazaei The beneficial effect of combination therapy with sulfasalazine and valsartan in the treatment of ulcerative colitis EXCLI journal (2021) doi: 10.17179/excli2021-3370 
5. Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Alireza Hashemzadeh , Atieh Yaghoubi , Amir Avan , Seyedeh Elnaz Nazari , Saman Soleimanpour, Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Gordon A. Ferns , Farzad Rahmani , Majid Khazaei Therapeutic effects of silver nanoparticle containing sulfasalazine on DSS-induced colitis model Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.jddst.2020.102133 

Only the first, Fern-free paper was retracted so far, on 23 November 2024:

“The author explained that they conducted the experiments of the 6 articles using the model of colitis, simultaneously and that they used the same control group for these experiments. The colitis model data were similar, but not identical.

After carefully reviewing the raw data provided by the author and all the experiments of the 6 articles, the editors believe that these experiments are very different and should not share the same control group. The explanation from the author did not solve their concerns. The editors have lost trust in the data and therefore decided to retract the article.”

See how important it is to have white men as coauthors? Retraction insurance! As reminder, Ferns has almost 30 such Iranian papers on PubPeer. Here he is with those same Iranians and the Chinese papermiller William Cho:

Milad Hashemzehi , Niloufar Naghibzadeh , Fereshteh Asgharzadeh , Asma Mostafapour , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Gordon A. Ferns , William C. Cho , Amir Avan, Majid Khazaei The therapeutic potential of losartan in lung metastasis of colorectal cancer EXCLI Journal (2020) doi: 10.17179/excli2020-2093 

Here is the oldest PubPeer-recorded thread for a silly fabrication by Ferns with the Khazaei-Avan gang:

Niloofar Ghobadi , Mehrane Mehramiz , Soodabeh ShahidSales , Arezou Rezaei Brojerdi , Kazem Anvari , Majid Khazaei , Majid Rezayi , Mohammad Sadegh Khorrami , Mona Joudi-Mashhad , Hassan Ramshini , Saeideh Ahmadi-Simab , Ali Moradi , Seyed Mahdi Hassanian , Majid Ghayour-Mobarhan , Mohammad Taher Boroushaki , Gordon A. Ferns , Amir Avan A genetic variant in CDKN2A/2B locus was associated with poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma Journal of Cellular Physiology (2019)  doi: 10.1002/jcp.27310 

If you wonder which professional consequences Ferns and Giovannetti face for papermilling with Iranian fraudsters: probably a fat pay-rise for each such paper, including the retracted ones.

Thing is, I did duly report it all to the University of Sussex and VU Amsterdam. The Dutch university ignored my notification and never replied. They probably decided that I am some kind of racist pervert who harasses Italian women in Iranian science.

In the UK, it wasn’t much better.

Caroline Gordon, Head of Research Ethics, Integrity and Governance at the University of Sussex, instructed me to “complete the attached Proforma for reporting Allegations of Research Misconduct“, which basically demanded that the notifier reveals their full identity to the accused. I instead insisted they admit the PubPeer evidence as it was.

On 14 February 2025, the University of Sussex sent me this letter, signed by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation Keith Jones, and announcing “the initiation of a Preliminary Investigation“:

Well, how do you think this turned out for Ferns? Fraud findings? Sanctions? A sack?

On 20 May 2025, Gordon informed me:

“Dear Mr Schneider,
Further to the letter sent to you, dated 14th February 2025, from Prof. Keith Jones, I am writing to let you know the allegations you reported on14th January 2025 have been considered under our procedures and that no further steps will be taken as a result.”

I asked, and the University of Sussex leaders never denied that they fully endorse Ferns’s collaboration with Iranian papermills, and deem all all those retractions as not justified and all PubPeer allegations as completely unfounded.

Ferns continues publishing with Iranian fraudsters as if there’s no tomorrow. Around 40 papers in 2025 already. Also Giovannetti continues, her most recent paper with Iranians, Avan et al 2025, appeared in March 2025. Ferns is coauthor.

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