Research integrity

Professor Grune’s diet of dodgy blots

As German TV asks Tilman Grune what he will eat in the future, I have other questions for him.

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by Leonid Schneider
Comment 1

Tilman Grune is 62 years old and one of Germany’s top authorities on nutrition and anti-aging. I however don’t watch TV and have therefore never heard of Professor Grune before. Instead, I arrived at his long-neglected PubPeer record by chance.

Grune is since 2014 scientific director of the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam and professor at the University of Potsdam (in Berlin’s neighbourhood), he is also simultaneously professor at the University of Vienna in Austria.

He also gives public lectures and appears on TV, warning of dangers of veganism, or, most recently telling us what we will eat in the future.

This paper, in a German society journal, is from University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, USA, it was flagged on PubPeer by the pseudonymous Claire Francis already in 2018:

Marilene Demasi, Kelvin J A Davies Proteasome inhibitors induce intracellular protein aggregation and cell death by an oxygen-dependent mechanism FEBS letters (2003) doi: 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)00353-3 

Fig 4

The Expression of Concern was issued on 25 November 2025, the journal, published by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), proudly notified the sleuth about it:

“This Expression of Concern is for the above article, published online on 12 April 2003 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), and has been issued by agreement between the journal Editor-in-Chief, Michael Brunner; the Federation of European Biochemical Societies; and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The Expression of Concern has been agreed upon due to the identification of overlaps between the 21% Oxygen and 3% Oxygen control panels in Figure 4, and between the 3% Oxygen, 5 μM lactacystin, and 3% Oxygen, 5 μM NLVS panels in Figure 4. Due to the length of time that has passed since publication, the authors were unable to provide their original data. The journal has decided to issue this Expression of Concern to inform and alert readers to the above issue.”

Worth noting that the Editor-in-Chief Michael Brunner published dodgy science himself, which he however vehemently denies (read November 2025 Shorts). Another note: the lead author is not to be confused with Maryanne Demasi, a former science cheater from Australia who became a “journalist” who specialises on covidiocies and antivaxxery (read July 2022 Shorts).

Kelvin Davies is emeritus professor of gerontology at USC, like Grune he specialises in free radicals. This paper of his is on PubPeer since 2014, the last author is our hero Tilman Grune:

Thomas Reinheckel , Nicolle Sitte , Oliver Ullrich , Ulrike Kuckelkorn , Kelvin J. A. Davies, Tilman Grune Comparative resistance of the 20S and 26S proteasome to oxidative stress Biochemical Journal (1998) doi: 10.1042/bj3350637

Fig 3A

Those are likely not digital manipulations, but vintage scissors and glue approach…

Oliver Ullrich , Thomas Reinheckel , Nicolle Sitte , Ralf Hass , Tilman Grune , Kelvin J. A. Davies Poly-ADP ribose polymerase activates nuclear proteasome to degrade oxidatively damaged histones Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1999) doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.11.6223 

Fig 4B, last gel lane is… unexpected

Grune grew up in the socialist Eastern Germany, studied in 1980ies in Moscow, USSR, returned in 1987 to Berlin, and made a career in the academia of unified Germany in different universities.

A scientist of integrity and beyond reproach

“The Investigative Committee notes that the infractions to normal scientific conduct surveyed in this report were blatant and repeated. Dr. [XY] should be dealt with in a manner consistent to the flagrant nature of the misconduct and data manipulation.” 2004 Berkeley report, illegal in Germany

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Another one by Davies and Grune, also on PubPeer since 2014:

Diana Poppek , Susi Keck , Gennady Ermak , Tobias Jung , Alexandra Stolzing , Oliver Ullrich , Kelvin J. A. Davies, Tilman Grune Phosphorylation inhibits turnover of the tau protein by the proteasome: influence of RCAN1 and oxidative stress Biochemical Journal (2006) doi: 10.1042/bj20060463 

Fig 6A, duplicated gel bands
Fig 6A, evidence of digital manipulation?

Grune was at some point visiting professor at Davies’ USC, which explains all these papers. This was also flagged by Claire Francis in 2014, with additional input from yours truly:

Reshma Shringarpure, Tilman Grune , Jana Mehlhase , Kelvin J.A. Davies Ubiquitin Conjugation Is Not Required for the Degradation of Oxidized Proteins by Proteasome The Journal of biological chemistry (2003) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m206279200 

Fig 1

Jana Mehlhase used to be a postdoc at Humboldt University Berlin when Grune ran a lab there. For reasons you can probably imagine, she then changed her name to Jana Grune, totally unrelated to that, she then went on to win various awards and in 2023 to become group leader at the German Heart Centre at the Charité Berlin.

Cancer at Charité

New season of the popular German TV series, ” Charité”, this time set in the early 21st century! Will Jürgen ever become professor? Will Bernd ever allow science to self-correct? Will Christoph ever catch his mechanical pursuer?

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Now, a later study by Mr and Mrs Grune, it was corrected recently:

Cathleen John , Jana Grune , Christiane Ott , Kerstin Nowotny , Stefanie Deubel , Arne Kühne , Carola Schubert , Ulrich Kintscher , Vera Regitz-Zagrosek , Tilman Grune Sex Differences in Cardiac Mitochondria in the New Zealand Obese Mouse Frontiers in Endocrinology (2018) doi: 10.3389/fendo.2018.00732 

Flagged by Actinopolyspora biskrensis; Correction 9 October 2025: “There was a mistake in Figure 2D as published. Accidentally, the immunoblot band of Figure 2B (male, NZO) was inserted in Figure 2D (female, NZO).”

Let us now return to USA, for a vintage Grune with Davies:

Tilman Grune, Thomas Reinheckel , Rui Li , James A. North , Kelvin J.A. Davies Proteasome-dependent turnover of protein disulfide isomerase in oxidatively stressed cells Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics (2002) doi: 10.1006/abbi.2001.2719 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis ” Figure 4. […] some of the signals may be the same, after resizing.”

And just look at this by Grune and Davies:

Tilman Grune, Diana Botzen , Martina Engels , Peter Voss, Barbara Kaiser, Tobias Jung , Stefanie Grimm , Gennady Ermak , Kelvin J.A. Davies Tau protein degradation is catalyzed by the ATP/ubiquitin-independent 20S proteasome under normal cell conditions Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics (2010) doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2010.05.008 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis : ” Figure 5A and Figure 5B? One panel seems to share the same origin”
Actinopolyspora biskrensis , Figure 4B vs Fig 1A of
Diana Botzen , Tilman Grune Degradation of HNE-modified proteins–possible role of ubiquitin Redox Report (2007) doi: 10.1179/135100007×162130

This was flagged on PubPeer when the paper was still 3 years old:

Tilman Grune, Betül Catalgol , Anke Licht , Gennady Ermak , Andrew M. Pickering , Jenny K. Ngo , Kelvin J.A. Davies HSP70 mediates dissociation and reassociation of the 26S proteasome during adaptation to oxidative stress Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2011.06.015 

This is how I followed Davies’s trail of crumbs to arrive at Grune’s PubPeer record. It has stuff like this, in the same Elsevier journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, where, oh what a surprise, Davies is Editor-in-Chief and Grune is editorial board member:

Marc Kästle , Sandra Reeg , Adelina Rogowska-Wrzesinska, Tilman Grune Chaperones, but not oxidized proteins, are ubiquitinated after oxidative stress Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2012) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2012.05.039 

Fig 1A
Fig 5A


Yeah, go ahead, complain to the Editor-in-Chief…


But also at home in Germany, Grune was doing the bestest science already at the turn of the century. Look at this artisan artwork, again with paper printouts and scissors. Reported by Claire Francis in 2014, illustrations mine:

Philipp Mayer-Kuckuk , Oliver Ullrich , Mathias Ziegler , Tilman Grune , Manfred Schweiger Functional interaction of poly(ADP-ribose) with the 20S proteasome in vitro Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (1999) doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1999.0824 

“Figure 5A. Please compare lanes 1 and 2, paying attention to the dark areas and spots in the background.”
“compare lane 3 figure 2A and lane 3 figure 2B, paying attention to the dark areas and spots in the background”

If those papers are too old to care, this by Grune is brand new. Noteworthy, he is Grune is foundling Editor-in-Chief of the journal Redox Biology:

Actinopolyspora biskrensis : “An image in this paper seems to have previously been published in an earlier paper by some common authors.” (Fig 1E 2025 vs Fig 2D 2023)

Grune never replied to my emails, but he did reply on PubPeer, to explain that “The control groups were equal by design, with identical genotype, diet, housing conditions, and colitis induction protocol“, which is difficult to understand, because apparently, a 25% corn oil diet counted as colitis-inducing treatment in one paper, and as “control diet” in another. Standard mouse chow contains merely 4% fat. But anyway, why was only one tissue slice stained and onyl one image taken, how is that representative? Grune explained on PubPeer:

“In accordance with the prevailing animal welfare regulations and the 3R principle (Reduction), portions of the animal work were conducted in parallel using a shared, contemporaneous control cohort that met the inclusion criteria for both studies. Consequently, a representative micrograph from this cohort was used in both manuscripts.“

Uhm, the 3R rules are about reducing the number of animals, not the number of tissue slices stained or of pictures taken…

Grune also refused to explain why he decided to hide his financial conflicts of interests in both studies (“All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest to be disclosed“). In reality, Grune sits on the scientific advisory board of the German company Neotes, which was founded in 2020 by some Axel Polack and which sells anti-aging tests and supplements, including not just resveratrol, spermidine, quercetin, NAD+, but also Omega 3 which the above study specifically advertises for. In fact, Grune’s own face advertises for Neotes “Longevity Club“, which costs between €25 and €299 per month:

Recommended by Prof Grune, apparently. (Neotes)

Grune is accompanied by other older white men like Bernd Kleine-Gunk, author of numerous silly books on diet and anti-aging (“Rejuvenate your genes“, “Lose weight with Sirtfood” etc). Strangely, neotes has two versions of its advisory board (here and here), both lists Grune and the other 3 anti-aging “professors”, but only one lists another proper professor, namely Björn Schuhmacher of University of Cologne.

Neotes

I think this is a clear conflict of interests. I also think Grune and Little-Gunk should write a book together.

Here is more anti-oxidant research by Grune:

Andrea Ernst , Alexandra Stolzing , Grit Sandig , Tilman Grune Antioxidants effectively prevent oxidation-induced protein damage in OLN 93 cells Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics (2004) doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2003.10.008 
Fig 3A
Edina Bakondi , Betul Catalgol , Istvan Bak , Tobias Jung , Perinur Bozaykut , Mehmet Bayramicli , Nesrin Kartal Ozer , Tilman Grune Age-related loss of stress-induced nuclear proteasome activation is due to low PARP-1 activity Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2010.10.700 “Figure 5C. Please compare bottom panel with darker, lower magnifcation top panel.”
Kerstin Nowotny , José Pedro Castro , Martín Hugo , Sabine Braune , Daniela Weber , Marc Pignitter , Veronika Somoza , Julia Bornhorst , Tanja Schwerdtle , Tilman Grune Oxidants produced by methylglyoxal-modified collagen trigger ER stress and apoptosis in skin fibroblasts Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2018.03.022 
Fig 1A

This paper had spliced gel lanes, but also duplicated gel bands:

Marc Kästle , Esther Woschee , Tilman Grune Histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) plays a crucial role in p38MAPK-dependent induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in response to proteasome inhibition Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2012) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2012.09.023 


Fig 1A

You see, we returned to Davies’s journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine whose Distinguished Editorial Board includes the toxic celebrities Michael Karin and and the Nobelist Louis Ignarro…

Fake data and real pomegranate juice in Nobelist Louis Ignarro’s papers

Louis J. Ignarro knew how to monetize his 1998 Nobel Prize for discovery of nitric oxide as molecular cell signalling agent. He made many millions selling dietary supplement for Herbalife and pomegranate juice for POM Wonderful Company. Some of that found its way (without proper conflict of interest declaration) into Ignarro’s peer reviewed papers. Those,…

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This, in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, starts getting personal, because Grune collaborated with people I personally knew during my own PhD studies at the University of Düsseldorf…

Yvonne Steffen , Tobias Jung , Lars-Oliver Klotz , Tankred Schewe , Tilman Grune, Helmut Sies Protein modification elicited by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in endothelial cells: protection by (-)-epicatechin Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2007) doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2006.12.024

Fig 1A, Actinopolyspora biskrensis: “There are several anomalous features in lane 4 and 5, and the bands have some similarities suggesting to me that portions of these lanes in the published figure may share the same source.”
Actinopolyspora biskrensis : ” Figure 5B and Figure 6. The two images outlined in orange seem to share the same source”

The Düsseldorf professor Helmut Sies is member of the Distinguished Editorial Board at that journal… Here another Düsseldorf study by Grune, who used to run a lab there from 2003 till 2006:

Betul Catalgol , Isabella Ziaja , Nicolle Breusing , Tobias Jung , Annika Höhn , Buket Alpertunga , Peter Schroeder , Niki Chondrogianni , Efstathios S. Gonos , Isabelle Petropoulos , Bertrand Friguet , Lars-Oliver Klotz, Jean Krutmann , Tilman Grune The proteasome is an integral part of solar ultraviolet a radiation-induced gene expression The Journal of biological chemistry (2009) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m109.044503 

“Figure 1.C. Inset panel. Vertical change in background between left and right lanes. Right lane is smoother than left lane.”

The problem is not just a spliced gel, the two halves are of different resolution and thus of different source.

Maybe that Davies paper at FEBS Letters was indeed saved by an Expression of Concern, because Grune put a word in? He even organises FEBS courses…

The above Düsseldorf paper features as coauthor Grune’s Greek friend Niki Chondrogianni, with whom he organised that FEBS course. Grune and Chondrogianni also sit on the board of ProMoAge graduate school of University of Jena in Germany. The Greek scientist must have introduced Grune to her mentor at the of National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF) in Athens, Efstathios Gonos, who is another anti-aging enthusiast.

Greek Coda

The NHRF board member and director of NHRF Institute of Chemical Biology Efstathios Gonos is Editor-in-Chief of two journals, one of them Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, published by Elsevier. In May 2021, we reported to the Gonos a fraudulent paper from the lab of Antoni Camins in Spain (Busquets et al 2017), where this editor swiftly announced (bold his):

“I would expect Prof Camins and the authors to respond back to the journal within 4 weeks. It will be also essential at this stage the authors to submit all raw data in relation the mentioned article. In case the journal finds authors’ response unsatisfactory or receives no response, the Publisher may decide the retraction of the article.”

Instead, Gonos issued a fraudulent Corrigendum in January 2022, where he and the authors accused the company Olympus of forging immunofluorescence images, as I reported in May 2022 Shorts.

“After consulting with experts, the authors confirm, that these accidental duplications in the photographs of cell antibodies are due to problems with the camera. […] the results of our study are experimentally reproducible, as we and other laboratories have reported in later publications and do not alter the conclusions of the manuscript at any time. The corrected version of Figures 2, 3 and 5 has been provided and replaced.” Corrigendum for Busquets et al 2017)

Gonos’s other journal, IUBMB Life (published by Wiley), was overrun by Chinese papermills, as we reported here:

Smut Clyde recorded 12 fabrications from the same papermill in IUBMB Life (one was already retracted). In his email to me from September 2021, Gonos blamed his predecessor, and declared:

“As a new Editor-in-Chief soon after I took over I have realized the problem you refer to and to this end I have implemented the following actions:

  1. We do not consider articles if they are submitted using commercial e-mails and/or do not quote a funding agent and grant’s number
  2. We request raw data, including entire blots, if the presented blots are just short stripes of perfectly “clean” bands
  3. All accepted articles are checked additionally by “Image check analysis” provided by the Publisher

Given all these measures the number of submissions has dropped to about 60% in comparison to 2020 submissions and moreover the number of currently accepted articles is less than 10%.”

Of course no decisive editorial action took place, all these papers Smut Clyde listed remained standing. Since 2021, IUBMB Life retracted exactly 7 papers, and we can safely assume that even there, the initiative didn’t come from Gonos. The most recent retraction, from January 2025, was for Gordon Ferns (Ghanaatgar‐Kasbi et al 2019), about whom you can read here:

Indeed, Gonos has a solid reason to cover up fraud. New stuff was posted on PubPeer regarding papers from his own lab.

Here, the first author is the aforementioned Gonos’s mentee, Niki Chondrogianni:

Niki Chondrogianni , Christos Tzavelas , Alexander J. Pemberton , Ioannis P. Nezis , A. Jennifer Rivett , Efstathios S. Gonos Overexpression of proteasome beta5 assembled subunit increases the amount of proteasome and confers ameliorated response to oxidative stress and higher survival rates The Journal of biological chemistry (2005) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m413007200 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis : “A panel in Figure 2B and in Figure 4B appear to be the same, yet they are described differently”
“The three “empty” panels in Figure 7B seem to be the same (more easily seen with false color illustration)” Figure 6B.

And here are Chondrogianni and Gonos again:

Niki Chondrogianni , Ioannis P. Trougakos , Dimitris Kletsas , Qin M. Chen , Efstathios S. Gonos Partial proteasome inhibition in human fibroblasts triggers accelerated M1 senescence or M2 crisis depending on p53 and Rb status Aging Cell (2008) doi: 10.1111/j.1474-9726.2008.00425.x   

Actinopolyspora biskrensis : “There appears to be a duplicated panel in Figure 4A-3”
“There seems to be a similar issue in Figure 7C.”

Another study by Gonos and Chondrogianni, already corrected in 2018 for errors in Figure 1:

Ilias Matis , Dafni Chrysanthi Delivoria , Barbara Mavroidi , Nikoletta Papaevgeniou , Stefania Panoutsou , Stamatia Bellou , Konstantinos D. Papavasileiou , Zacharoula I. Linardaki , Alexandra V. Stavropoulou , Kostas Vekrellis , Nikos Boukos , Fragiskos N. Kolisis , Efstathios S. Gonos, Marigoula Margarity , Manthos G. Papadopoulos , Spiros Efthimiopoulos , Maria Pelecanou , Niki Chondrogianni , Georgios Skretas An integrated bacterial system for the discovery of chemical rescuers of disease-associated protein misfolding Nature Biomedical Engineering (2017) doi: 10.1038/s41551-017-0144-3 

Tragopogon cretaceus : “In Fig. 2 b, the No peptide and SOD1C5-4 figures in each of AB40 and AB42 are identical.”
“In Fig. 7 e, the No peptide figures in both 1:1 and 5:1 panels are identical. The ABC-34 and ABC5-116 figures in each of 1:1 and 5:1 panels are identical.”

There are also problematic papers without Chondrogianni. Another recently flagged paper with Gonos as last author:

Evangelos Kolettas, Ioannis Skoufos , Evangelos Kontargiris , Soultana Markopoulou , Theodoros Tzavaras , Efstathios. S. Gonos Bcl-2 but not clusterin/apolipoprotein J protected human diploid fibroblasts and immortalized keratinocytes from ceramide-induced apoptosis: role of p53 in the ceramide response Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics (2006) doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2005.10.006 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis : “There seems to be a duplicated image in Figure 8B.”

How about some cloned gel bands and blank boxes, presumably placed to cover other, undesired gel bands?

Magda Lourda , Ioannis P. Trougakos , Efstathios S. Gonos Development of resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs in human osteosarcoma cell lines largely depends on up‐regulation of clusterin/apolipoprotein J International Journal of Cancer (2007) doi: 10.1002/ijc.22327 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis: “In Figure 2D, there may be a differential splice between lanes 2 and 3 of the MDR1 panel (maroon diamond), and lanes 3 and 4 of the PARP panel appear to share the same source (cyan arrows).”

Here is Gonos defecating into his own journal:

Christina Sisoula , Efstathios S. Gonos CHIP E3 ligase regulates mammalian senescence by modulating the levels of oxidized proteins Mechanisms of Ageing and Development (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2011.04.003 

Actinopolyspora biskrensis: “The same CHIP panel seems to appear in both Figure 2A and Figure 3B, but the conditions are different.”

Not really shocking was to discover that Gonos works with the Canadian cheater Martin Gleave.

Here a common paper, flagged a few months ago:

Ioannis P. Trougakos , Alan So , Burkhard Jansen , Martin E. Gleave, Efstathios S. Gonos Silencing Expression of the Clusterin/Apolipoprotein J Gene in Human Cancer Cells Using Small Interfering RNA Induces Spontaneous Apoptosis, Reduced Growth Ability, and Cell Sensitization to Genotoxic and Oxidative Stress Cancer Research (2004) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-03-2664 

Fig 2E
Fig 4

Maybe also worth mentioning is who presides over the NHRF board of directors, where Gonos is member. This “Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors” is Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, a close friend of the infamous Aristidis Tsatsakis, read about them here:

Those are not coincidences, these people seek out and find each other, and they conspire to control academic publishing and evaluations, influence governments, manipulate national and international policies, and of course, divert public money for their own purposes.

They are the heroes and geniuses of biomedical science whom you are then expected to admire on TV.

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1 comment on “Professor Grune’s diet of dodgy blots”

  1. ino p's avatar
    ino p
    December 10, 2025

    ”Those are not coincidences, these people seek out and find each other, and they conspire to control academic publishing and evaluations, influence governments, manipulate national and international policies, and of course, divert public money for their own purposes.”

    Well said !

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