Research integrity Sholto David

Perfect Blots

"A coordinated review of the cited publications and underlying data is currently underway" - Hiroki Kuniyasu

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by Sholto David
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Sholto David will tell you about a man somewhere in Japan, who gets up every morning, brushes his teeth, goes to work, fakes some western blots, goes home, and then does the same the next day, and the next. Occasionally he collects those fake western blots into a research paper, which he publishes preferably in MDPI. The man doesn’t seem to care about fame or even money, it almost looks like that he fakes those blots to make his employers and colleagues happy.

Unless a film crew arrives to film his daily routine, we will not even know what this man looks like. His name is Hiroki Kuniyasu.

Perfect Blots

by Sholto David

Recently, the research integrity consultant Leslie Macintosh informed us of her pressing concern that

“sleuthing is being weaponized to serve political agendas. For instance, a few people deliberately highlight only papers authored by researchers of certain ethnicities, backgrounds, or genders.”

Exactly what kind of “backgrounds” are being nefariously targeted wasn’t clear to me, but I quickly commissioned myself to write this piece on a male researcher from Japan to ensure that For Better Science remains fully compliant with current (and future) ethical codes.

Oral oncology at Showa University

“”Dear Aneurus Inconstans, thank you for your series of valuable suggestions. We will sincerely verify the matters pointed out. I’m sorry, many collaborators have already resigned from academia.”

Aneurus's avatar by Aneurus

Sadly, there is not much to say about the background of Hiroki Kuniyasu. I can say, at least, that Kuniyasu is for many years professor at Nara Medical University in the department of molecular pathology. Any other details? Well, you might as well just make them up, it would be in the spirit of the story.

This is another case of image fraud, and it’s a big one, I count 78 papers with troubling duplicated images, most can be easily accessed through a PubPeer name search. Normally I would write about such papers one by one, but it would be so tedious here. Instead I’ll start with a collage showing variations of the same western blot described as representing at least twelve different proteins in 16 papers. So far I have spotted it 24 times… I am quite sure there are more examples.

Bruce Lee Quotes … “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

These are the papers, mostly in Oncotarget or MDOI, on many rather unrelated topics of oncology and gastroenterology, the oldest study is from 2010 and the youngest is from 2025 (and about COVID-19). Be invited to click on the PubPeer links to see other forgeries they contain:

  1. Sayako Matsushima-Otsuka , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Takamitsu Sasaki , Hitoshi Ohmori , Chie Nakashima , Shingo Kishi , Yukiko Nishiguchi , Kiyomu Fujii , Yi Luo , Hiroki Kuniyasu Significance of intranuclear angiotensin-II type 2 receptor in oral squamous cell carcinoma Oncotarget (2018) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26337 
  2. Kiyomu Fujii , Yi Luo , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Shingo Kishi , Song He , Shuyun Yang , Takamitsu Sasaki , Hitoshi Ohmori , Hiroki Kuniyasu Pro-metastatic intracellular signaling of the elaidic trans fatty acid International Journal of Oncology (2017) doi: 10.3892/ijo.2016.3797 
  3. Mayu Kita , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Shingo Kishi , Shiori Mori , Hitoshi Ohmori , Chie Nakashima , Kei Goto , Takamitsu Sasaki , Kiyomu Fujii , Isao Kawahara , Ujjal Kumar Bhawal , Yi Luo , Hiroki Kuniyasu Role of creatine shuttle in colorectal cancer cells Oncotarget (2023) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.28436 
  4. Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Takamitsu Sasaki , Yi Luo , Kei Goto , Isao Kawahara , Yukiko Nishiguchi , Shingo Kishi , Shiori Mori , Hitoshi Ohmori , Masuo Kondoh , Hiroki Kuniyasu Anti-claudin-4 extracellular domain antibody enhances the antitumoral effects of chemotherapeutic and antibody drugs in colorectal cancer Oncotarget (2018) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26427 
  5. Yoshihiro Miyagawa , Shota Nukaga , Takuya Mori , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Kiyomu Fujii , Shiori Mori , Kei Goto , Shingo Kishi , Takamitsu Sasaki , Chie Nakashima , Hitoshi Ohmori , Isao Kawahara , Yi Luo, Hiroki Kuniyasu Evaluation of cancer-derived myocardial impairments using a mouse model Oncotarget (2020) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.27759 
  6. Takuya Owari , Takamitsu Sasaki , Kiyomu Fujii , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Shingo Kishi , Shiori Mori , Takuya Mori , Kei Goto , Isao Kawahara , Yasushi Nakai , Makito Miyake , Yi Luo , Nobumichi Tanaka , Masuo Kondoh , Kiyohide Fujimoto , Hiroki Kuniyasu Role of Nuclear Claudin-4 in Renal Cell Carcinoma International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2020) doi: 10.3390/ijms21218340 
  7. Yi Luo , Junya Yoneda , Hitoshi Ohmori , Takamitsu Sasaki , Kazutaka Shimbo , Sachise Eto , Yumiko Kato , Hiroshi Miyano , Tsuyoshi Kobayashi , Tomonori Sasahira , Yoshitomo Chihara , Hiroki Kuniyasu Cancer Usurps Skeletal Muscle as an Energy Repository Cancer Research (2014) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-13-1052 
  8. Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Kiyomu Fujii , Shiori Mori , Shingo Kishi , Takamitsu Sasaki , Hitoshi Ohmori , Chie Nakashima , Isao Kawahara , Yukiko Nishiguchi , Takuya Mori , Masayuki Sho , Masuo Kondoh , Yi Luo , Hiroki Kuniyasu Role of Clostridium perfringens Enterotoxin on YAP Activation in Colonic Sessile Serrated Adenoma/Polyps with Dysplasia International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2020) doi: 10.3390/ijms21113840 
  9. Takamitsu Sasaki , Shiori Mori , Shingo Kishi , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Hitoshi Ohmori , Yukiko Nishiguchi , Yudai Hojo , Isao Kawahara , Chie Nakashima , Kiyomu Fujii , Yi Luo , Hiroki Kuniyasu Effect of Proton Pump Inhibitors on Colorectal Cancer International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2020) doi: 10.3390/ijms21113877
  10. Momoko Gyoten , Yi Luo , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Shiori Mori , Ruiko Ogata , Shingo Kishi , Hiroki Kuniyasu Lovastatin Treatment Inducing Apoptosis in Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells by Inhibiting Cholesterol Rafts in Plasma Membrane and Mitochondria International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023) doi: 10.3390/ijms242316814 
  11. Yi Luo , Hitoshi Ohmori , Takasumi Shimomoto , Kiyomu Fujii , Tomonori Sasahira , Yoshitomo Chihara , Hiroki Kuniyasu Anti-angiotensin and hypoglycemic treatments suppress liver metastasis of colon cancer cells Pathobiology (2011) doi: 10.1159/000330169 
  12. Chie Nakashima , Kazuhiko Yamamoto , Shingo Kishi , Takamitsu Sasaki , Hitoshi Ohmori , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Shiori Mori , Isao Kawahara , Yukiko Nishiguchi , Takuya Mori , Masuo Kondoh , Yi Luo, Tadaaki Kirita, Hiroki Kuniyasu Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin induces claudin-4 to activate YAP in oral squamous cell carcinomas Oncotarget (2020) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.27424
  13. Shota Nukaga , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Takuya Mori , Isao Kawahara , Ryoichi Nishida , Yoshihiro Miyagawa , Kei Goto , Hitoshi Ohmori , Kiyomu Fujii , Takamitsu Sasaki , Chie Nakashima , Yi Luo , Shiori Mori , Shingo Kishi , Ruiko Ogata , Hiroki Kuniyasu SARS-CoV-2-Derived RNA Fragment Induces Myocardial Dysfunction via siRNA-like Suppression of Mitochondrial ATP Synthase International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2025) doi: 10.3390/ijms26115392 
  14. Yukiko Nishiguchi , Rina Fujiwara-Tani , Takamitsu Sasaki , Yi Luo , Hitoshi Ohmori , Shingo Kishi , Shiori Mori , Kei Goto , Wataru Yasui , Masayuki Sho , Hiroki Kuniyasu Targeting claudin-4 enhances CDDP-chemosensitivity in gastric cancer Oncotarget (2019) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26758 
  15. Takamitsu Sasaki , Hiroki Kuniyasu , Yi Luo , Daisuke Kato , Satoshi Shinya , Kiyomu Fujii , Hitoshi Ohmori , Yuichi Yamashita Significance of epithelial growth factor in the epithelial–mesenchymal transition of human gallbladder cancer cells Cancer Science (2012) doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.2012.02264.x 
  16. H. Kuniyasu , Y. Luo , K. Fujii , T. Sasahira , Y. Moriwaka , N. Tatsumoto , T. Sasaki , Y. Yamashita , H. Ohmori CD10 enhances metastasis of colorectal cancer by abrogating the anti-tumoural effect of methionine-enkephalin in the liver Gut (2010) doi: 10.1136/gut.2009.178376 

Twenty-four appearances in sixteen papers. Perhaps it is a record? Does it put Mario Saad to shame?

At first glance some of these gel bands may appear a little different, yet careful inspection, especially in the fifth column, proves quite convincing. Here’s a magnification with a little stronger contrast, note the spots of noise:

In some cases the colours have been inverted turning a western blot into a PCR gel, thus handily escaping automated detection:

Chie Nakashima, Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Shingo Kishi, Takamitsu Sasaki, Hitoshi Ohmori, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Shiori Mori, Isao Kawahara, Yukiko Nishiguchi, Takuya Mori, Masuo Kondoh, Yi Luo, Tadaaki Kirita, Hiroki Kuniyasu Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin induces claudin-4 to activate YAP in oral squamous cell carcinomas Oncotarget (2020) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.27424

Fig 2B

The repurposing of western blots and DNA gels in Hiroki Kuniyasu’s papers is so severe that completely annotating this on PubPeer will be nearly impossible. Here’s a screenshot from a scan of another Oncotarget paper where ImageTwin.ai listed papers containing the same images, annotating them up to the letter “Q”… Meaning, this single Oncotarget paper shares images with sixteen other papers by the same team!

Yukiko Nishiguchi, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Takamitsu Sasaki, Yi Luo, Hitoshi Ohmori, Shingo Kishi, Shiori Mori, Kei Goto, Wataru Yasui, Masayuki Sho, Hiroki Kuniyasu Targeting claudin-4 enhances CDDP-chemosensitivity in gastric cancer Oncotarget (2019) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26758

Elisabeth Bik was first to identify problems in this paper.

Elisabeth Bik spotted some of the issues in this paper as far back as 2019, around the same time an anonymous account (Lottia cassis) also tagged another Oncotarget paper, including duplicate blots between papers. As is so often the case, opportunities to stop this mischief have been squandered… While there is certainly a huge amount of repurposing and republishing of western blot fragments, some of these papers also include fanciful cut and paste constructions of individual bands. Here is something about a resveratrol analogue from blueberries, apparently it cures cancer:

Yukiko Nishiguch, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Shota Nukaga, Ryoichi Nishida, Ayaka Ikemoto, Rika Sasaki, Shiori Mori, Ruiko Ogata, Shingo Kishi, Yudai Hojo, Hisashi Shinohara, Masayuki Sho, Hiroki Kuniyasu Pterostilbene Induces Apoptosis from Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Synergistically with Anticancer Drugs That Deposit Iron in Mitochondria International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024) doi: 10.3390/ijms25052611

Figure 5B: Coloured rectangles indicate copied and pasted bands.

We remain on the popular topic of berries for cancer therapy:

Kei Goto, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Shota Nukaga, Yoshihiro Miyagawa, Isao Kawahara, Ryoichi Nishida, Ayaka Ikemoto, Rika Sasaki, Ruiko Ogata, Shingo Kishi, Yi Luo, Kiyomu Fujii, Hitoshi Ohmori, Hiroki Kuniyasu Berberine Improves Cancer-Derived Myocardial Impairment in Experimental Cachexia Models by Targeting High-Mobility Group Box-1 International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024) doi: 10.3390/ijms25094735

Figure 6: Unexpected duplicate bands in the presented western blots.

Again at MDPI, something something with stem cells:

Rika Sasaki, Yi Luo, Shingo Kishi, Ruiko Ogata, Yukiko Nishiguchi, Takamitsu Sasaki, Hitoshi Ohmori, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Hiroki Kuniyasu Oxidative High Mobility Group Box-1 Accelerates Mitochondrial Transfer from Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Colorectal Cancer Cells Providing Cancer Cell Stemness International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2025) doi: 10.3390/ijms26031192

Figure 3B: The indicated bands (red rectangles) are highly similar.

Here Kuniyasu discovered another buzzword, “aging”:

Yi Luo, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Isao Kawahara, Kei Goto, Shota Nukaga, Ryoichi Nishida, Chie Nakashima, Takamitsu Sasaki, Yoshihiro Miyagawa, Ruiko Ogata, Kiyomu Fujii, Hitoshi Ohmori, Hiroki Kuniyasu Cancerous Conditions Accelerate the Aging of Skeletal Muscle via Mitochondrial DNA Damage International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024) doi: 10.3390/ijms25137060

Figure 2I and J: The ladders in the two agarose gels look near identical, several bands that look very similar to each other. In the western blot there are also two near identical bands.

microRNAs are obviously a very popular topic with cancer fraudsters:

Shingo Kishi, Shiori Mori, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Ruiko Ogata, Rika Sasaki, Ayaka Ikemoto, Kei Goto, Takamitsu Sasaki, Makito Miyake, Satoru Sasagawa, Masashi Kawaichi, Yi Luo, Ujjal Kumar Bhawal, Kiyohide Fujimoto, Hidemitsu Nakagawa, Hiroki Kuniyasu ERVK13-1/miR-873-5p/GNMT Axis Promotes Metastatic Potential in Human Bladder Cancer though Sarcosine Production International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2023) doi: 10.3390/ijms242216367

Figure 4B: Individual bands in the gel are highly similar.
Figure 4E

There are also papers with histology and microscopy overlaps.

Ruiko Ogata, Shiori Mori, Shingo Kishi, Rika Sasaki, Naoya Iwata, Hitoshi Ohmori, Takamitsu Sasaki, Yukiko Nishiguchi, Chie Nakashima, Kei Goto, Isao Kawahara, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Hiroki Kuniyasu Linoleic Acid Upregulates Microrna-494 to Induce Quiescence in Colorectal Cancer International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2021) doi: 10.3390/ijms23010225

Figure 1A: Unexpected similarity, the overlapping areas are near identical.

Here is another dietary supplement, from coconuts:

Shota Nukaga, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Ryoichi Nishida, Yoshihiro Miyagawa, Kei Goto, Isao Kawahara, Chie Nakashima, Kiyomu Fujii, Ruiko Ogata, Hitoshi Ohmori, Hiroki Kuniyasu Caprylic Acid Inhibits High Mobility Group Box-1-Induced Mitochondrial Damage in Myocardial Tubes International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024) doi: 10.3390/ijms25158081

Figure 5D: Unexpected overlapping area between images that should show different treatment conditions.

Also microscopy images of cells are recycled between papers:

Unexpected overlap between images in different papers by the same team, these should show different experiments.

There are other cell problems:

Yumiko Kondo, Kanya Honoki, Shingo Kishi, Shiori Mori, Rina Fujiwara‑tani, Shinji Tsukamoto, Hiromasa Fujii, Hiroki Kuniyasu, Yasuhito Tanaka Endosialin/CD248 may be a potential therapeutic target to prevent the invasion and metastasis in osteosarcoma Oncology Letters (2021) doi: 10.3892/ol.2021.13160

Figure 3F: Unexpected overlapping areas between images that should show cells in different treatment conditions.

…and even more green stuff, again with coconuts:

Shiori Mori, Rina Fujiwara-Tani, Ruiko Ogata, Hitoshi Ohmori, Kiyomu Fujii, Yi Luo, Takamitsu Sasaki, Yukiko Nishiguchi, Ujjal Kumar Bhawal, Shingo Kishi, Hiroki Kuniyasu Anti-Cancer and Pro-Immune Effects of Lauric Acid on Colorectal Cancer Cells International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2025) doi: 10.3390/ijms26051953

Figure 7F: Unexpected overlapping areas between images that should show different treatment conditions

Returning to the western blots and DNA gels, there are a large number of quite distinctive shapes that can be spotted by eye, here’s another collage, from four publications on largely unrelated topics:

Unexpected similarities between western blots in different papers

I’m sure there are also plenty more of the inverted colour similarities to spot, here’s another I added just now, note that the intensity and thickness of the bands has also been adjusted but the overall shapes of these bands are quite distinct.

Supposedly completely unrelated experiments

My impression is that Kuniyasu’s work is rather boring. OpenAlex assigns about 300 articles to his name, most seem to garner little attention with a median of about 25 or so citations per paper, all the more mysterious that he managed to keep getting funded for this work. There was a spell of apparent success as visiting researcher at MD Anderson in Dallas, USA, with several well-referenced papers in the 1990s. Perhaps that’s where Kuniyasu was taught to fiddle? It would make sense…

By the way, this is very much an “active shooter” situation, even though Kuniyasu seems to have published nothing in 2026 so far, in 2025 he published seven problematic articles, and in 2024 nine, in fact the 2020s have been especially busy:

Here are two papers from 2025, in Kuniyasu’s favourite MDPI journal, with a duplicate PCR gel, these are supposed to show different cell types and genes:

Different cell lines, different genes, different treatments, but same gel bands

The second paper also has a problem with overlapping cells…

Figure 2A: Unexpected overlapping area between images that should show different treatment conditions.

If it wasn’t obvious from the examples I’ve shown so far, the usual suspects from the publishing industry are indeed involved, with around 40% of the problematic papers arriving in MDPI, Karger makes a surprise appearance here. Also prominent: Spandidos and Impact Journals LLC (in the form of Oncotarget).

Problematic papers by publisher, MDPI (32), Karger (9), Wiley (9), Impact Journals LLC (8), Spandidos (8), Springer Nature (5), Elsevier (4), the rest not shown (3).

I wrote to Kuniyasu and colleagues, eventually receiving this response form the man himself:

Dear Sholto,

Thank you for your follow-up message.

We are taking the concerns you raised seriously. A coordinated review of the cited publications and underlying data is currently underway with the relevant co-authors and our institutional research integrity office.

To ensure accuracy and consistency, we will provide a consolidated response after the initial assessment is completed. We are not ignoring your message, but we need to follow the formal review process before commenting on individual points.

Best regards,

Hiroki Kuniyasu

Kuniyasu’s involvement seems rather pointless, only in academia does the perpetrator join the investigative effort first.

Nara Medical University’s leadership did eventually reply to our emails. This message arrived on 23 March 2026, from Shin Kinoshita of the Research Promotion Division:

“Thank you for your message and for bringing this matter to our attention.

Nara Medical University takes concerns regarding research integrity seriously.

In accordance with our institutional regulations and the MEXT “Guidelines for Responding to Misconduct in Research Activities,” the University has initiated an internal investigation, and a formal investigation committee has been established to review the matter.

The establishment of the investigation committee has been publicly announced on our university website.

As the investigation is currently ongoing, we are not in a position to comment on specific allegations or individual cases at this stage.

All matters related to this case are being handled centrally by the University to ensure fairness and procedural integrity.

We will make an appropriate announcement once the investigation has reached a conclusion.

Thank you for your understanding.“

It is probably this announcement:

“Questions arose regarding the authenticity of research data regarding a paper published by a faculty member at our university.
Our university takes this matter seriously and has established an investigation committee based on our university’s relevant regulations and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “Guidelines for Responding to Misconduct in Research Activities,” and is currently working to confirm the facts.
Our university recognizes that ensuring the reliability and transparency of research activities is an important responsibility, and we will respond carefully while ensuring the fairness of investigations and giving due consideration to the rights of those involved.
We will announce the results of the investigation as soon as they are finalized.
As this matter is currently under investigation, we will refrain from responding to individual inquiries.”

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