Schneider Shorts 26.12.2025 – Happy New Year!

Schneider Shorts of 26 December 2025 – most read in 2025, an obituary to the man who made the blind see, fake neuroscience, fake biochemistry and fake dermatology, plus how to profit for abusing Black babies, and finally, why you must eat cheese to survive.

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Most-read in 2025

First of all, I thank my readers for the successful past year 2025. Special thanks go to everyone who supported For Better Science financially, every donation counts, no matter how small. If you also would like to have this exclusive feeling of annoying the most powerfuls and contributing to some really big changes, all for a tiny investment: the support options are listed here.

The main achievement of 2025: For Better Science celebrated its 10 year anniversary on 28 October 2025, despite all odds. Read the best wishes of its contributors:

And here are the charts for the most-read articles of this ending year 2025:

1. A Polish fairy tale from December 2024 about the Pakistani genius Muhammad Bilal who made it big in Poland, and then was swiftly disposed of to save the careers of all this Polish bigwigs who profited from his papermilling. The former “Nobelium” professor Bilal was last seen as a humble little postdoc in Belgium, he also suffered some retractions.

2. For some reason, For Better Science was recently accessed thousandfold each day first from USA and now from China. Possibly by AI, but I am perfectly happy to train it. This article from July 2023 was very popular with Chinese “readers”, it is about the questionable legacy of the British Nobelist Sir John Vane who bequeathed his institute at Queen Mary University to some very dishonest mentees of his. In fact, Christoph Thiemermann suffered so many retractions by now, that anyone anywhere else would have been sacked long ago.

3. Another old article made popular, possibly due to this year’s news reporting in Switzerland. And yet the narcissistic diva Adriano Aguzzi remains safe and protected at his University Hospital of Zurich. That despite a made-up PhD degree, masses of falsified papers, and even retractions.

4. Sholto David was finally and very handsomely paid for his sleuthing, with a whistleblower reward of $2.6 Million! He and his lawyer sued Dana Farber Cancer Institute in USA for embezzling public funds to produce fraudulent research, in particular papers by Kenneth Anderson. The basis was this blog post by Sholto from January 2024 which was already one of the most-read articles on For Better Science already in 20024, and also this year:

5. Another classic regained popularity – Alexander Magazinov‘s article from November 2022, about various fraudster nobodies who become international science elites aka Highly Cited Researchers by vigorous papermilling.

6. In the case of this article from November 2023 about Italian cardiologists in UK, Paolo Madeddu and his ex-wife Costanze Emanueli I really don’t know what made it so popular again. Maybe AI?

7. This article from February 2024 featured some three major European papermillers: Christian Sonne and Mika Sillanpää in Denmark, and Jörg Rinklebe in Germany. Sillanpää (a bully, thief and sexual harasser who was sacked in Finland before) seems to have run off to South Africa (to harass women there?), Rinklebe’s intellectual capacities are being questioned by publishers in retraction notices, while Sonne enjoys full support from his Aarhus University, which issued lawsuit threats to get this exact article removed. They only achieved to make me to draw a cartoon:

8. As it happens, another article related to the papermillers Christian Sonne and Jörg Rinklebe. This one is from June 2025 and its main character is their Brazilian papermill buddy Eder Lima. Who managed to install his mentee in Sweden and destroyed at least one academic career with his papermilling.

9. Another article from 2025, about a massive fraudster in France, the nanofabricator Jolanda Spadavecchia. Many of her papers were retracted or about to be, while Spadavecchia herself was found guilty of research misconduct and sanctioned, the news featured in Le Monde. She still keeps whining and accusing her whistleblower, Raphael Levy.

10. Again, no idea why this article from February 2023 became popular again. Blame AI as usual. It is about Hugh Brady, the President of Imperial College London in UK, who used to be President of University College Dublin in Ireland, and those bad papers by Catherine Godson he put his name on.

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Obituary

UK lifesaver

Earlier this year, the British ophthalmologist and regenerative medicine researcher Pete Coffey has died. He is remembered as the genius who made the blind see.

Here is the obituary by his university:

“Professor Pete Coffey, who sadly passed away in June 2025 after a long illness, was Professor of Visual Psychophysics at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and theme lead for Regenerative Therapy, Lasers, and Medical Devices at the NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre.

He is known for leading research into a breakthrough treatment that restored sight in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and an extensive list of accomplishments that will continue to influence future eye research and stem cell therapy.

In 2018, he made headlines with a groundbreaking clinical study of a novel treatment that he pioneered for AMD, the most common form of blindness in the UK. The treatment effectively treated the disease in two patients who had lost their sight, allowing them to see faces once more. They went from not being able to read at all, to reading 60-80 words per minute with normal reading glasses.

The ground-breaking procedure involves implanting a “patch” of stem cells over the back of the eye. To develop the therapy, Professor Coffey and his team created the cells, perfected a new surgical technique and new surgical tools to implant them, and pioneered imaging techniques to monitor their progress once in the eye.”

That 2018 breakthrough was in all the media, following the UCL press release headed “Two people regain sight after pioneering eye therapy“. In May 2019, UCL reported that Coffey was named “a UK lifesaver“. Truth is however: his clinical trial was terminated and the alleged “breakthrough” never happened as such, the AMD sufferers worldwide were given false hope. The University of Liverpool professor Patricia Murray tried to set facts right already back in 2018. She questioned why patients with wet AMD were subjected to this treatment in the first place, since it is dry AMD patients for whom no working treatments exist. Wet AMD is caused by abnormal angiogenesis at the back of the eye which can lead to blood leaks, which damage the retinal epithelial (RPE) and the photoreceptor cells. These patients respond quite well to anti-angiogenic drugs, and quite often their sight improves by itself when the leaked blood gets resorbed. Is this why Coffey decided to treat wet AMD sufferers?

The stem cells Coffey used were human embryonic stem cells (hESC) which were differentiated into RPE cells. The eye implant was marketed by Coffey and UCL, first via Coffey’s now defunct company Synretina in collaboration with the pharma giant Pfizer. In August 2017, Fierce Biotech reported:

“PF-05206388—originally developed by scientists led by Professor Pete Coffey at University College London (UCL) in the U.K.—consisted of an polymer scaffold carrying stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells that was designed to be implanted into the eye.

The cells were intended to be used to replace those at the back of the eye that are damaged in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with Pfizer and its collaborators focusing initially on the wet (exudative) form of the disease. […]

The first patient was treated at Moorfields in 2015, and the intention was to enroll 10 patients into the phase 1 study with a data read-out due in March 2017. A notice on clinicaltrials.gov indicates patient enrolment was suspended in January.”

The results of these two patients were published in this paper, which then was hailed as a breakthrough which allegedly let blind people see:

Lyndon Da Cruz , Kate Fynes , Odysseas Georgiadis , Julie Kerby , Yvonne H Luo , Ahmad Ahmado , Amanda Vernon , Julie T Daniels , Britta Nommiste , Shazeen M Hasan , Sakina B Gooljar , Amanda-Jayne F Carr , Anthony Vugler , Conor M Ramsden , Magda Bictash , Mike Fenster , Juliette Steer , Tricia Harbinson , Anna Wilbrey , Adnan Tufail , Gang Feng, Mark Whitlock, Anthony G Robson, Graham E Holder, Mandeep S Sagoo, Peter T Loudon, Paul Whiting, Peter J Coffey Phase 1 clinical study of an embryonic stem cell–derived retinal pigment epithelium patch in age-related macular degeneration Nature Biotechnology (2018) doi: 10.1038/nbt.4114

From the paper:

“We reported three serious adverse events to the regulator. These were exposure of the suture of the fluocinolone implant used for immunosuppression, a retinal detachment, and worsening of diabetes following oral prednisolone. All three incidents required readmission to the hospital, with the first two incidents requiring further surgery and the third being treated medically”

As the study admitted, the adverse effects were already observed in the preclinical stage, in two out of ten pigs: “Retinal detachment and rupture of the lens capsule were observed in on male and one female implanted with the patch.” And as for the other pigs: “At 6 months after implantation, no hESC-RPE cells were detected at the implantation site or elsewhere in H&E sections of the ten eyes receiving the RPE patch.” And:

“Microscopic findings of chronic inflammation were seen restricted to the subretinal implantation site, at 6 months in the implanted (left) eye of all animals, and were consistent with the intraocular surgical implantation procedure. The microscopic findings included fibrosis, osseous metaplasia, and small numbers of macrophages and multinucleate giant cells (data not shown). Atrophy of the photoreceptor layer in overlying retina was also present (data not shown).”

And this is again the patient data from Coffey’s study (highlights mine):

“On full-field electro-retinography (ERG) recording, there was evidence of a mild but consistent reduction in photoreceptor function at 6 months in both patients with additional consequent electro-oculography (EOG) reduction (in the eyes operated on). The reduction in photoreceptor function persisted in patient 1 but recovered in patient 2 by 12 months.”

Maybe the implant had an adverse effect on the photoreceptors, as observed in pigs? Coffey’s own data clearly showed why his implant could never have worked, here a slide by professor Murray:

RPE cells must be in physical contact with the photoreceptors if the retina is to function long-term. Coffey’s pig data shows a huge gap between his hESC-RPE scaffold and the photoreceptor layer.

In 2021, Coffey and the first author and another UCL professor Lyndon Da Cruz started another regmed company with UCL’s support: Tenpoint Therapeutics, which in 2023 raised £57 million, “to potentially restore sight to millions affected“.

In 2024, Coffey and Da Cruz published their 5 year-follow-up study of these two patients. In MDPI:

Lyndon Da Cruz , Taha Soomro , Odysseas Georgiadis , Britta Nommiste , Mandeep S Sagoo , Peter Coffey The Fate of RPE Cells Following hESC-RPE Patch Transplantation in Haemorrhagic Wet AMD: Pigmentation, Extension of Pigmentation, Thickness of Transplant, Assessment for Proliferation and Visual Function-A 5 Year-Follow Up Diagnostics (2024) doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14101005 

In that follow-up study, they forgot to mention their company Tenpoint Tx, but insisted that “Sustained improvement of visual acuity is also demonstrated for 2 years for the first patient and for 5 years for the second patient.” Again, there is no actual evidence their graft had any positive input for these two wet AMD sufferers.

By the way, here an older paper by Coffey and Da Cruz:

Mariya Moosajee, Dhani Tracey-White , Matthew Smart , Marla Weetall , Simona Torriano , Vasiliki Kalatzis , Lyndon Da Cruz , Peter Coffey , Andrew R. Webster , Ellen Welch Functional rescue of REP1 following treatment with PTC124 and novel derivative PTC-414 in human choroideremia fibroblasts and the nonsense-mediated zebrafish model Human Molecular Genetics (2016) doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddw184   

Wait, I have an extra dollop. Back in 2018, as Coffey’s wet AMD study with RPE cells was criticised, this phase 1 trial with 12 patients, by other researchers at UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, served as an example of a promising stem cell approach to curing dry AMD:

Manjit S. Mehat , Venki Sundaram , Caterina Ripamonti , Anthony G. Robson , Alexander J. Smith , Shyamanga Borooah , Martha Robinson , Adam N. Rosenthal , William Innes , Richard G. Weleber , Richard W.J. Lee , Michael Crossland , Gary S. Rubin , Baljean Dhillon , David H.W. Steel , Eddy Anglade , Robert P. Lanza , Robin R. Ali , Michel Michaelides , James W.B. Bainbridge Transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells in Macular Degeneration Ophthalmology (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2018.04.037 

As you see, it is by UCL researchers Robin Ali, James Bainbridge and Michel Michaelides. Who can’t be really trusted with honest science, read here:

Yet even these otherwise dishonest characters admitted in their study: “Borderline improvements in best-corrected VA in 4 participants either were unsustained or were matched by a similar improvement in the untreated contralateral eye“, and that the participants reported “no significant change” in their vision.

But Coffey wanted to be a UK lifesaver.

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Scholarly Publishing

Without full awareness that such arrangement was not appropriate

A society journal, issued by the International brain Research Organization (IBRO), corrected a paper. It is from Iran, the land where all great science comes from, and it announced a cure for Alzheimer’s, which is erythropoietin (EPO):

Etrat Hooshmandi , Fereshteh Motamedi , Maryam Moosavi, Hermann Katinger , Zahra Zakeri , Jalal Zaringhalam , Amirhossein Maghsoudi , Rasoul Ghasemi , Nader Maghsoudi CEPO-Fc (An EPO Derivative) Protects Hippocampus Against Aβ-induced Memory Deterioration: A Behavioral and Molecular Study in a Rat Model of Aβ Toxicity Neuroscience (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.08.001 

Elisabeth Bik flagged this paper in November 2019. 6 years later, in December 2025, the coauthor Maryam Moosavi, associate professor at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, replied on PubPeer with western blot raw data, explained that “this was done without full awareness that such a change in lane arrangement was not appropriate , and only for presentation purposes“, and announced that “a corrigendum has now been published“. Moosavi also kindly posted its text, because the society journal decided to erase their own correction, despite its allegedly permanent doi (it now only exists on PubMed):

” The authors regret in Figure 5 of the published article, the β-actin lanes were inadvertently misassembled, resulting in an incorrect lane order. The original membrane contained two replicate Aβ lanes (lane 2 and lane 7), and lane 7 was selected for presentation because it showed a cleaner exposure. However, during assembly of the β-actin panel for Akt, lane 7 was mistakenly placed in the third position instead of the second, producing the displayed order “1–2–7–3–4–5” instead of the intended “1–7–3–4–5–6.” All other panels derived from the same membrane (phospho-Akt, total Akt, phospho-p38, total p38, and the β-actin accompanying p38) already reflect the correct 1–7–3–4–5–6 order. All quantitative analyses had been completed before figure assembly and were based exclusively on phospho/total ratios from the same membrane, as also reflected in the graphs. β-actin was included only as a visual loading reference and was not used for normalization; therefore, this presentation-level error does not affect the study’s results or conclusions.”

So mucb for letting learned societies run the journals. To the surprise of noone, Moosavi has more bad stuff on PubPeer, and she already successfully corrected some of it. In fact, here another EPO claim for Alzheimer’s, featuring an octogenarian Austrian professor, Hermann Katinger:

Etrat Hooshmandi , Maryam Moosavi , Hermann Katinger , Shima Sardab , Rasoul Ghasemi, Nader Maghsoudi CEPO (carbamylated erythropoietin)-Fc protects hippocampal cells in culture against beta amyloid-induced apoptosis: considering Akt/GSK-3β and ERK signaling pathways Molecular Biology Reports (2020) doi: 10.1007/s11033-020-05309-6 

The Correction from May 2020 briefly stated that “the original version of this article contained a mistake in the arrangement of representative cell images in Fig. 2“, which it then replaced. This, about cinnamon as a cure for Alzheimer’s. was also fixed soon after Bik’s post from November 2019:

Roksana SoukhakLari , Afshin Borhani-Haghighi , Ava Farsadrooh , Leila Moezi , Fatema Pirsalami , Armaghan Kazerouni , Anahid Safari , Maryam Moosavi The effect of cinnamaldehyde on passive avoidance memory and hippocampal Akt, ERK and GSK-3β in mice European Journal of Pharmacology (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2019.172530 

Moosavi replied in December 2019, mentioning that “presently pubpeer is not accessible in our country“, and announced a Corrigendum, which appeared in April 2020, and briefly stated that “The authors regret that there is a mistake in the western blot bands of Fig. 2A in which an error was made in showing the bands of t-GSK-3β.“

Here, data was shared across two papers, by Moosavi corrected only one of them. It was about curing Parkinson’s with curcumin:

Roksana Sookhaklari , Bita Geramizadeh , Morteza Abkar , Maryam Moosavi The neuroprotective effect of BSA-based nanocurcumin against 6-OHDA-induced cell death in SH-SY5Y cells Avicenna journal of phytomedicine (2019) pubmed: 30984574 

In January 2020, Moosavi proudly announced to have corrected the other paper, in the Iranian journal. The Correction was brief: “The authors regret there were two errors in Fig 2B in which the images of insulin 0.9 and 1 μM were inserted erroneously. The correct figure is given below“.

This Springer Nature journal was already corrected for other issues, a second correction would be not appropriate, thus nothing was done:

Esmat Amiri , Rasoul Ghasemi , Maryam Moosavi Agmatine Protects Against 6-OHDA-Induced Apoptosis, and ERK and Akt/GSK Disruption in SH-SY5Y Cells Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology (2016) doi: 10.1007/s10571-015-0266-7 

Here, Moosavi informed Bik on PubPeer in December 2019 that the Elsevier journal “mentioned that there is no need to proceed with a corrigendum“:

Maryam Moosavi, Leila Abbasi , Asadollah Zarifkar , Karim Rastegar The role of nitric oxide in spatial memory stages, hippocampal ERK and CaMKII phosphorylation Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior (2014) doi: 10.1016/j.pbb.2014.03.021 

I agree with this Elsevier editor, the Sanofi executive Guy Griebel. One cannot correct this fraud, thus best just to quietly forget about it.

Finally, I fully concur with Elsevier and Moosavi that one cannot possibly ever try to correct this:

Nader Maghsoudi, Narges Kh. Tafreshi , Fariba Khodagholi , Zahra Zakeri, Mitra Esfandiarei , Hamid Hadi-Alijanvand , Marjan Sabbaghian , Amir Hossein Maghsoudi , Mahnaz Sajadi , Mastaneh Zohri , Maryam Moosavi , Mehdi Zeinoddini Targeting enteroviral 2A protease by a 16-mer synthetic peptide: inhibition of 2Apro-induced apoptosis in a stable Tet-on HeLa cell line Virology (2010) doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2009.12.017 

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Retraction Watchdogging

Dream Boldly, Act Bravely, Transform Lives

The British dermatologist and serial entrepreneur Ardeshir Bayat made his motto “Dream Boldly, Act Bravely, Transform Lives“. Next to founding or consulting several companies simultaneously, he is also professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His professorship at University of Manchester ended in 2022, and it wasn’t a big loss for the British university, because look what was just retracted:

Farhatullah Syed , Alexis N. Thomas , Subir Singh , Venkatesh Kolluru , Susan G. Emeigh Hart , Ardeshir Bayat In vitro study of novel collagenase (XIAFLEX®) on Dupuytren’s disease fibroblasts displays unique drug related properties PLOS One (2012) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031430 

After notification by Claire Francis, PLOS investigators found much more fraud. The retraction was issued on 19 December 2025:

“After this article [1] was published, concerns were raised regarding results presented in Figs 5, 9, 11, and S8.

Specifically,

• In Fig 5A the DD_Nodule Col-250ng and DD_Cord Col-250ng panels appear more similar than would be expected from independent results.
• In Fig 9, there appear to be similarities between the following panels despite representing different experimental samples:
  • Fig 9B DD_Nodule, Fig 9F DD_Skin, and Fig 9G DD_Nodule rotated 180°.
  • Fig 9F DD_Nodule bottom row, Fig 9F DD_Fat bottom row rotated 180°, and Fig 9G DD_Skin bottom row.
  • Fig 9F DD_Nodule top row and Fig 9G DD_Skin top row.
• The DD_Cord panels in Figs 9B, 9F and 9G appear similar, although they represent the same sample and experimental conditions.
• In Fig 9B when levels are adjusted to visualize the background, there appear to be areas where the background is discontinuous with the surrounding areas in the following panels:
  • DD_Nodule between the Untreated and Xia-400ng wells.
  • DD_Cord between the Untreated and Xia-400ng wells.
• In Fig 11A, part of the DD_Nodule suppWE panel appears similar to part of the DD_Skin suppWE panel.
• In Fig S8, there appear to be similarities between the following panels:
  • CT_Skin Xia-400ng and CT_Fascia Camp-250ng.
  • CT_Skin Col-250ng and CT_Fascia Xia-400ng.
  • CT_Skin Col-1000ng and CT_Fat Camp-250ng.
  • CT_Skin Camp-250ng and CT_Fascia Xia-700ng.
  • CT_Fat Xia-400ng and CT_Fat Xia-700ng.

Co-first author FS stated that in Fig 5A, comparable dot-plot distributions reflect biological reproducibility and shared gating templates. Regarding the panel similarities in Fig 9, they stated that in in-cell western blotting, well images appear alike when cell type, confluence, and treatment are similar. Regarding the background of Fig 9B DD_Nodule and DD_Cord panels, co-first author FS stated the differences in background may reflect contrast adjustments made for montage clarity. They stated the data underlying the results in [1] are no longer available. As such, PLOS does not consider the above concerns can be resolved.

In light of the above unresolved concerns that question the reliability of the reported results, the PLOS One Editors retract this article.”

The authors didn’t agree with the retraction, but Bayat got lucky with another paper, it was saved with Expression of Concern:

Syed Amir Iqbal , Michael John Hayton , James Stewart Watson , Piotr Szczypa , Ardeshir Bayat First Identification of Resident and Circulating Fibrocytes in Dupuytren’s Disease Shown to Be Inhibited by Serum Amyloid P and Xiapex PLOS One (2014) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099967 

The Expression of Concern was issued on 17 December 2025:

“After this article [1] was published, concerns were raised regarding results presented in Fig 6 and the statistical analyses reported in this study.

Specifically:

• In Fig 6B, part of the Collagenase A 1 µg/ml panel appears similar to part of the Xiapex® 1 µg/ml panel
• The Statistical Analysis subsection of the Materials and Methods reports that data were analyzed using unpaired two-tailed t-tests, and paired t-test for differences between CT and DD cell counts at each concentration of SAP. However, multiple experiments in this article [1] appear to present more than two variables, suggesting that statistical tests designed for the comparison of multiple variables should have been used instead.

The corresponding author, AB, stated that the data underlying the results in [1] are no longer available, and the underlying data were not provided with the published article [1], contrary to the Data Availability statement. This article [1] therefore does not comply with the PLOS Data Availability policy.”

There is of course more bad stuff by Bayat on PubPeer. Here is another recent retraction, in Frontiers:

Sara Ud-Din, Traci A Wilgus, Ardeshir Bayat Mast Cells in Skin Scarring: A Review of Animal and Human Research Frontiers in Immunology (2020) doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.552205 

We will get to that other paper in a moment. First, the Retraction from 16 October 2025:

“Following publication, concerns were raised regarding the integrity of the images in the published figures. There were concerns about the images in Figure 2, which also appeared in another publication from a different publisher, but with different magnification and labelling. The authors failed to provide a satisfactory explanation during the investigation, which was conducted in accordance with Frontiers’ policies. As a result, the data and conclusions of the article have been deemed unreliable, and the article has been retracted.”

Now, about that other paper. Back in Manchester, Bayat founded together with the cosmetic surgeon, Douglas McGeorge. a cosmetics company called “Science of Skin“: “The product is formulated to help reduce scarring caused by everything from chicken pox and acne to injury, surgery and even burns.” The skin cream is called Solution for Scars™ and is sold for £18.99, and it is made from green tea:

“Solution for Scars™ is the world’s first scientifically proven formula using a NATURAL active ingredient to reduce the appearance of symptomatic scars.[…]

The ground breaking research led by scientist Dr Ardeshir Bayat, in collaboration with Mr Douglas McGeorge, a former President of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), has demonstrated that this particular active form of green tea extract allows a completely different approach to scar management.”

Science of Skin website

So here is that paper I promised, a clinical study by Bayat and McGeorge to prove that their magic scar-removal cream from grean tea works, and let’s see if you recognise a certain Manchester-based coauthor:

Sara Ud-Din , Philip Foden , Mohsin Mazhari , Samer Al-Habba , Mohamed Baguneid , Silvia Bulfone-Paus , Douglas McGeorge, Ardeshir Bayat A Double-Blind, Randomized Trial Shows the Role of Zonal Priming and Direct Topical Application of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate in the Modulation of Cutaneous Scarring in Human Skin Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2019.01.030 

Why yes, it is the legendary mega-fraudster from Germany, Silvia Bulfone-Paus, who was kicked out from Forschungszentrum Borstel and escaped to Manchster where she remains their zombie professor, read below:

But it is not Bulfone-Paus who is the fraudster here. The above clincial study shares images with another one by Bayat and McGeorge, again about their magic cream:

Sara Ud-Din , Traci A. Wilgus , Douglas D. McGeorge, Ardeshir Bayat Pre-Emptive Priming of Human Skin Improves Cutaneous Scarring and Is Superior to Immediate and Delayed Topical Anti-Scarring Treatment Post-Wounding: A Double-Blind Randomised Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial Pharmaceutics (2021) doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13040510 

And here are papers by Bayat with two massive cheaters: Silvia Bulfone-Paus’s husband and skin care entrepreneur, Ralf Paus (read about him in July 2022 Shorts), and ta-da, Pier Paolo Pandolfi, who was sacked twice, first in Harvard, USA, and then in Italy:

Naturally, the data forgery for that green tea cream started already at the preclinical stage:

G. P. Sidgwick , D. McGeorge , A. Bayat Functional testing of topical skin formulations using an optimised ex vivo skin organ culture model Archives of Dermatological Research (2016) doi: 10.1007/s00403-016-1645-8 

The Science of Skin website quotes the company’s founder:

“Our research has broken the mould when it comes to effective products to make a significant difference in the successful management of scarring. Solution for Scars™ works differently and far more effectively than some of the existing products on the market. Solid scientific research and harnessing the very best that nature can offer underpins all of our product development – and we now have the scientific evidence to back it up.”

Ardeshir Bayat, Science of Skin

Decide for yourself if that cream works.

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The authors intend to repeat the key experiments to verify the findings

Another retraction for Dario Alessi, head of MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit (MRC-PPU) at University of Dundee in UK, a job he inherited from his mentor Sir Philip Cohen:

The paper was flagged by pseudonymous Claire Francis in October 2024, with extra evidence added in January 2025. All coauthors are Alessi’s colleagues at MRC-PPU save for Harvard’s bigwig Kristopher Kahle:

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 Biochemical Journal (2014) doi: 10.1042/bj20131478 

There was also image reuse across papers:

Alessi’s and Kahle’s paper Zhang et al 2016 had even more data duplications, btw.

In November 2024, the University of Dundee announced on PubPeer to be “examining the points raised“, for both papers. In spring 2025, the University announced that they “were unable to locate data records that could help explain the issues raised“, but never mind, all conclusions are supported because “other publications confirm or present data consistent with the findings of this study“. The statement ended with:

“We shared our analysis and all related details with the journal to facilitate any actions they deem appropriate. The potential duplication with a second publication is being dealt with separately.”

Nothing was done to the Scientific Reports paper, just as the Scottish university asked (“no action is required for this Figures“). But Biochemical Journal‘s publisher Portland Press, which already retracted some papers by Alessi and Cohen, were not convinced and issued this retraction on 17 December 2025:

“The authors of the article “The WNK-regulated SPAK/OSR1 kinases directly phosphorylate and inhibit the K+-Cl- co-transporters” (DOI: 10.1042/BJ20131478) wish to retract the article from the Biochemical Journal after being alerted by a reader to multiple errors across Figures 3–7 of the published work.

These errors included misalignment of digitised Western blot data, incorrect figure labelling and instances of blot duplication due to miscommunication between laboratory members involved in preparing the figures following peer review. Unfortunately, these errors were not detected during the final pre-publication review.

The authors have located and verified the original raw data and laboratory notebooks for all experiments. These data reaffirm the study’s central conclusion, that WNK-regulated SPAK/OSR1 kinases directly phosphorylate and inhibit K+-Cl- co-transporters. These findings have been independently replicated and supported by numerous peer-reviewed publications over the past decade, and the phospho-specific antibodies generated in this study have also been widely used to investigate KCC regulation (e.g. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m117.817841; DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m705095200; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810134115; and DOI: 10.1038 /s41467-019-13851-6). The authors therefore stand by the conclusions of the paper.

However, given the number of errors identified, and in the interest of maintaining scientific transparency and integrity of the published record, the authors collectively agree that retraction of this article is the most appropriate course of action.

The Publisher reviewed original data provided by the authors and agrees with retraction of the paper.

The authors sincerely apologise to the editors, reviewers and readers of the Biochemical Journal for the inconvenience caused by these unintentional errors. The authors intend to repeat the key experiments to verify the findings, and the confirmed results will be submitted for consideration of publication in due course.”

We all tremble with anticipation at the promised new and totally unfake version of this 11 year old study.

Alessi’s former postdoc Jinwei Zhang is now group leader at the University of Exeter, also in UK. Here another paper of Zhang’s, now from Exeter and again with Kahle:

Jinwei Zhang, Mohammad Iqbal H. Bhuiyan , Ting Zhang , Jason K. Karimy , Zhijuan Wu , Victoria M. Fiesler , Jingfang Zhang , Huachen Huang , Md Nabiul Hasan , Anna E. Skrzypiec , Mariusz Mucha , Daniel Duran , Wei Huang , Robert Pawlak , Lesley M. Foley , T. Kevin Hitchens , Margaret B. Minnigh , Samuel M. Poloyac , Seth L. Alper , Bradley J. Molyneaux , Andrew J. Trevelyan, Kristopher T. Kahle ,Dandan Sun, Xianming Deng Modulation of brain cation-Cl cotransport via the SPAK kinase inhibitor ZT-1a Nature Communications (2020) doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13851-6

Almost a year ago, in January 2025, Zhang admitted that some gels images “may have been mistakenly placed” and announced to “address this matter with the Journal editor“. You see that they decided that no action was needed.

Zhang has more on PubPeer, mostly with his mentor Alessi, sometimes also Stanford’s bigwig Nathanael Gray is last author. The University of Dundee has decided that those were “the result of a genuine error” (Deng et al 2013), nothing but “a mistake that occurred during image preparation” (Zhang et al 2012), that the available raw data “supports the overall conclusion” (Zhang et al 2015), or just gave up investigating (Hatcher et al 2015). 

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Science Breakthroughs

A single-blind clinical trial

Trump’s fascist regime is doing its best to kill millions of people, including Americans, by preventable diseases. In USA, one approach is to strip citizens of health insurance, the other is to get them while young, by denying them vaccinations.

For that, Trump’s Secretary of Disease and unhinged psychopath Robert F Kennedy Jr keeps appointing the worst of antivaxxers to conduct “studies” which will predictable prove that vaccines are evil.

So here is the new announcement of a future scientific discovery. Soon a clinical trial in Africa, performed on Black babies, will prove that Hepatitis B vaccines are evil.

Liz Szabo reports in CIDRAP on 18 December 2025:

“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded an unsolicited $1.6 million grant for vaccine research to Danish researchers whose studies have been challenged by mainstream scientists but championed by anti-vaccine activists, including Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

According to a notice in the Federal Register posted yesterday, the CDC is paying the University of Southern Denmark to conduct a single-blind clinical trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in newborns in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa with exceptionally high rates of maternal and infant mortality, where nearly one in five people are infected with the hepatitis B virus.“

Single-blind trial means that the African mothers will be lied to that their babies receive a vaccine, while in reality at least half of them won’t. We are informed that the grant was awarded without any call or competition, basically HHS contacted these Danish antivaxxers of the so-called Bandim Health Project, and asked them if they would like to abuse some Black babies for a huge pile of money.

The “scientists” here are the anthropologist Peter Aaby, professor at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), and his wife and fellow professor at SDU, Christine Stabell Benn. Aaby was praised by RFK’s own antivax lobby organisation Children’s Health Defense as “a martyr who lost his funding when he suggested vaccines cause more harm than good“. Stabell Benn is a collaborator of FDA’s senior leader Tracy Beth Hoeg, who has just convinced Trump to reduce the vaccination schedules in USA, also the hepatitis B vaccine was cancelled.

These people are known to deliver the right kind of results:

“In June, Kennedy used a single study by the Bandim group to justify canceling more than $1 billion in funding for childhood vaccinations in developing countries.”

Yes, these people are racists, and yes they run a death cult.

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Survival benefits of Malmö cheese

To end the year, some trash science which is at least funny. Did you know that cheese prevents dementia?

A press release by the most authoritative scholarly source, the American Academy of Neurology, hit news headlines worldwide right in time before Christmas:

“People who eat higher amounts of full-fat cheese and cream may be less likely to develop dementia later in life, according to a new study published on December 17, 2025, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. […]

“For decades, the debate over high-fat versus low-fat diets has shaped health advice, sometimes even categorizing cheese as an unhealthy food to limit,” said Emily Sonestedt, PhD, of Lund University, Sweden “Our study found that some high-fat dairy products may actually lower the risk of dementia, challenging some long-held assumptions about fat and brain health. […]

“These findings suggest that when it comes to brain health not all dairy is equal,” said Sonestedt. “While eating more high-fat cheese and cream was linked to a reduced risk of dementia, other dairy products and low-fat alternatives did not show the same effect.”

This is the paper:

Yufeng Du , Yan Borné , Jessica Samuelsson , Isabelle Glans , Xiaobin Hu , Katarina Nägga , Sebastian Palmqvist , Oskar Hansson , Emily Sonestedt High- and Low-Fat Dairy Consumption and Long-Term Risk of Dementia: Evidence From a 25-Year Prospective Cohort Study Neurology (2026) doi: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000214343

The data comes from the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDC) population health dataset from Malmö, Sweden, with 27,670 adults followed since the early 1990ies. It was determined that “higher cheese consumption was associated with a 13% lower risk of dementia“, and even prevented Alzheimer’s in some case. Also, “daily consumption of high-fat cream was linked to a 16% lower risk of dementia“. Low-fat dairy products had zero effect.

Another recent study by Sonestedt, from October 2025 (Du et al 2025), studied the same MDC dataset and found something even more important: cheese prevents death! And here, even the fat content doesn’t matter: “high-fat cheese, low-fat cheese, and low-fat fermented milk was linked to survival benefits“.

In February 2024, Sonestedt proved via the MDC dataset that “Intakes of cheese (only in women) and butter were inversely associated with the risk of major adverse coronary events” (Dukuzimana et al 2024). But then again, in May 2025 Sonnestedt analysed the same MDC dataset for the incidence of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) to warn that “high intakes of nonfermented milk and cheese are positively associated with risk of T2D“, although luckily “high intakes of fermented milk, cream, and butter are inversely associated” (Zhang et al 2025). When previously working with Chinese colleagues on a different dataset, Sonestedt determined that “Higher intakes of total dairy, milk, and yogurt were all associated with a lower risk of T2D among Chinese adults” (Zhang et al 2023).

It gets madder. in November 2025, Sonestedt published yet another analysis of the MDC dataset (Zhang et al 2025), announcing that the cheese substance responsible for dementia protection was taurine (found in also in meat and fish). Never mind that low-fat cheese has the same taurine content as full fat cheese, sending her own parallel-published findings from Du et al 2026 out of the window. Anyway, humans aren’t cats and can synthesise their own taurine, that’s vegans like yours truly are still alive.

Sonestedt’s papers don’t declare any obvious links to dairy, meat or other food industry. Maybe this associate professor just hates vegans so much that she just had to find a scientific rationale for her antipathy.

Wait, no. In September 2025, Sonestedt used that same MDC dataset again, to determine that…. meat and dairy are bad: “Diets with higher climate impact were associated with adverse health outcomes, especially diabetes incidence” but also with cancer mortality and cardiovascular incidents Stubbendorff et al 2025.

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