Schneider Shorts 22.05.2026 – See them all moving around in their artificial eggs

Schneider Shorts of 22 May 2026 – an obituary for great Italian cancer researcher, Thermo Fisher being Unscientific, Polish patriots fight russian agents, a Thai papermiller reinvents himself, with corrections and concerns, with Korean magnetism in genetics, and finally, beware of Colossal eggs hatching!

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Obituary

Far-sighted woman and a great warrior

In December 2025, a great Italian cancer researcher has died aged 82: Ada Sacchi. An obituary was published on 25 December 2025 by the national Association for Cell Biology and Differentiation (ABCD, current president is the cheater Sara Sigismund):

“Ada was Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Oncogenesis and Head of Department of the Experimental Research Center of the IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute in Rome.
Throughout his career he has carried out intense research in the field of cellular and molecular biology, focusing on the mechanisms regulating cell proliferation and survival in tumor physiology and progression. In particular, his studies concerned the genes of the p53 family and their role in the genesis and therapy of tumors.”

Sacchi’s former student and now group leader at IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Regina Elena, Rome, Rita Falcioni, called her mentor “a generous, far-sighted woman and a great warrior” who “fought to affirm the quality and effectiveness of the research of the Regina Elena Institute and of all of us“.

Sacchi’s research was briefly mentioned in these articles:

Sacchi leaves behind 40 very bad papers on PubPeer, this by her mentee Falcioni received an Expression of Concern:

Valentina Folgiero , Paolo Avetrani , Giulia Bon , Selene E. Di Carlo , Alessandra Fabi , Cecilia Nisticò , Patrizia Vici , Elisa Melucci , Simonetta Buglioni , Letizia Perracchio , Isabella Sperduti , Laura Rosanò, Ada Sacchi , Marcella Mottolese , Rita Falcioni Induction of ErbB-3 expression by alpha6beta4 integrin contributes to tamoxifen resistance in ERbeta1-negative breast carcinomas PLOS One (2008) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001592 

More by Sacchi and Falcioni:

Annarita Morena , Sabrina Riccioni , Alessandra Marchetti , Alessandro Tartaglia Polcini , Arthur M. Mercurio , Giovanni Blandino , Ada Sacchi , Rita Falcioni Expression of the beta 4 integrin subunit induces monocytic differentiation of 32D/v-Abl cells Blood (2002) doi: 10.1182/blood.v100.1.96 

Another bad paper by sacchi with her mentees, Giulia Piaggio is now group leader at IRCCS:

Aymone Gurtner , Paola Fuschi , Fabio Martelli , Isabella Manni , Simona Artuso , Giacoma Simonte , Valeria Ambrosino , Annalisa Antonini , Valentina Folgiero , Rita Falcioni , Ada Sacchi , Giulia Piaggio Transcription Factor NF-Y Induces Apoptosis in Cells Expressing Wild-Type p53 through E2F1 Upregulation and p53 Activation Cancer Research (2010) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-10-0721 

Look at those gels, rotting on PubPeer since 2016:

Daniela Stoppoloni , Claudia Canino , Irene Cardillo , Alessandra Verdina , Alfonso Baldi , Ada Sacchi , Rossella Galati Synergistic effect of gefitinib and rofecoxib in mesothelioma cells Molecular Cancer (2010) doi: 10.1186/1476-4598-9-27 

This same team retracted in 2022 a paper they coauthored with the disastrous Lucia Altucci and her associate Angela Nebbioso:

Alessandra Verdina, Irene Cardillo , Angela Nebbioso , Rossella Galati, Simona Menegozzo , Lucia Altucci , Ada Sacchi , Alfonso Baldi Molecular analysis of the effects of Piroxicam and Cisplatin on mesothelioma cells growth and viability Journal of Translational Medicine (2008) doi: 10.1186/1479-5876-6-27

The retraction from 27 December 2022 listed forgeries in Figures 5a and 6b, and informed that “the authors are unable to provide the raw data used to produce these figures“.

Here a paper by Sacchi with her own former mentor at Temple University in USA, Renato Baserga (who died in March 2023 aged 97):

Barbara Cristofanelli , Barbara Valentinis , Silvia Soddu , Maria Giulia Rizzo , Alessandra Marchetti , Gianluca Bossi , Anna Rita Morena , Michael Dews , Renato Baserga , Ada Sacchi Cooperative transformation of 32D cells by the combined expression of IRS-1 and V-Ha-Ras Oncogene (2000) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1203664 

The above and many other bad papers by Sacchi features a professor at University of Rome Tor Vergata: Silvia Soddu, who literally inherited Sacchi’s job as IRCCS lab director when the latter retired in 2000. Soddu has almost 40 papers on PubPeer. Like this, with the CNR group leader Fabiola Moretti:

Cinzia Rinaldo , Andrea Prodosmo , Francesca Mancini , Stefano Iacovelli , Ada Sacchi , Fabiola Moretti , Silvia Soddu MDM2-Regulated Degradation of HIPK2 Prevents p53Ser46 Phosphorylation and DNA Damage-Induced Apoptosis Molecular Cell (2007) doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2007.02.008 

Another disaster by Soddu, Sacchi and Moretti:

Francesca Mancini , Giusy Di Conza , Marsha Pellegrino , Cinzia Rinaldo , Andrea Prodosmo , Simona Giglio , Igea D’Agnano , Fulvio Florenzano , Lara Felicioni , Fiamma Buttitta , Antonio Marchetti , Ada Sacchi , Alfredo Pontecorvi , Silvia Soddu , Fabiola Moretti MDM4 (MDMX) localizes at the mitochondria and facilitates the p53‐mediated intrinsic‐apoptotic pathway The EMBO Journal (2009) doi: 10.1038/emboj.2009.154 

Here a paper by Sacchi, Soddu and Galina Selivanova, a russian in Sweden:

Cinzia Rinaldo , Andrea Prodosmo , Francesca Siepi , Alice Moncada , Ada Sacchi , Galina Selivanova , Silvia Soddu HIPK2 regulation by MDM2 determines tumor cell response to the p53-reactivating drugs nutlin-3 and RITA Cancer Research (2009) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-09-0337 

Cheaters always find each other.

Sacchi has many common fabrications with IRCCS unit director Giovanni Blandino (PubPeer record) and with titans of bad science like Richard Pestell, Giannino Del Sal or Moshe Oren. Here is a good example:

Sabrina Strano , Eliana Munarriz , Mario Rossi , Luisa Castagnoli , Yosef Shaul, Ada Sacchi , Moshe Oren , Marius Sudol , Gianni Cesareni , Giovanni Blandino Physical interaction with Yes-associated protein enhances p73 transcriptional activity Journal of Biological Chemistry (2001) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m010484200 

Ada Sacchi achieved a lot, but I am not sure she contributed positively towards curing cancer.

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Industry Giants

Thermo Fisher Unscientific

Look what Sholto David found, and shared on social media.

Here is the biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific, being totally unscientific. Their product page for a monoclonal p53 antibody, clone DO-7, includes a ridiculously fake western blot:

Sholto’s analysis:

Sholto found that two other another monoclonal p53 antibodies (clone PCRP-TP53-1F7 and clone PCRP-TP53-2A10) share the same gel to confirm their purity and integrity:

Well done, Thermo Fisher. I informed some company executives on LinkedIn, they saw the message, but chose not to reply.

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Science Elites

Wojtasek will go to jail for collaborating with Russian intelligence

The Polish professor and papermill fighter Hubert Wojtasek dared to criticise another papermilling colleague, and was promptly showered with the most absurd slander online, about him being a russian agent, paid to betray and crucify Poland. To be read in the comment section of an article on Forum Akademickie (operated by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education) from 14 May 2026. The article reported, Google-translated:

“Prof. Stanisław Legutko from the Poznań University of Technology, a specialist in machine technology, machining and operation of machines and devices, received an honorary doctorate from the Lublin University of Technology. The ceremony took place on the day of the Lublin university’s 73rd anniversary. […]

His main research interests are the technology and use of cutting tools, gear technology, machine operation and industrial logistics. […] He has authored over 600 scientific works…”

Wojtasek made the first comment to point out that Stanislaw Legutko‘s publication record includes several known papermillers as coauthors, quote:

• Grzegorz Królczyk – 53 publications, 2667/4123 citations
• Muhammad Irfan – 19 publications, 505/4123 citations
• Saifur Ur Rahman – 16 publications
• Muhammad Yasin Naz (University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, alma mater of Muhammad Bilal) – 11 publications
• Shazia Shukrullah (University of Agriculture, Faisalabad) – 9 publications
• Muhammad Usama Niazi – 8 publications

Legutko was, as it happens, also responsible for Krolczyk’s appointment as professor, which the latter paid back by awarding Legutko with a honorary doctorate from his Opole University of Technology in 2024.

All these amazing collaborations are the reason why Legutko is expert on many, many other things, next to cutting tools. Some of it is on PubPeer, like this:

Muhammad Irfan , Irshad Ahmad , Shazia Shukrullah, Humaira Hussain , Muhammad Atif , Stanislaw Legutko, Jana Petru, Michal Hatala , Muhammad Yasin Naz , Saifur Rahman Construction of 0D/2D Schottky Heterojunctions of ZnO and TiC Nanosheets with the Enriched Transfer of Interfacial Charges for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15134557  

Legutko’s coauthor Jana Petrů of Ostrava Technical University in Czechia, has much more papermilled stuff on PubPeer. Here they are again together:

Shahroz Saleem, Muhammad Irfan , Muhammad Yasin Naz , Shazia Shukrullah , Muhammad Adnan Munir , Muhammad Ayyaz, Abdullah Saeed Alwadie , Stanislaw Legutko , Jana Petrů , Saifur Rahman Investigating the Impact of Cu2+ Doping on the Morphological, Structural, Optical, and Electrical Properties of CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles for Use in Electrical Devices Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15103502 

Also, Legutko can cure cancer with nanoparticles, see Daud et al 2022 with Petru (where tumours have higher density than solid gold!) or this, with Jerzy Jozwik in Lublin University of Technology:

Muhammad Qamar , Ghulam Abbas , Muhammad Afzaal , Muhammad Y Naz , Abdul Ghuffar , Muhammad Irfan , Stanislaw Legutko, Jerzy Jozwik , Magdalena Zawada-Michalowska, Abdulnour Ali Jazem Ghanim, Saifur Rahman , Usama M Niazi , Mohammed Jalalah , Fahad Salem Alkahtani , Mohammad K A Khan , Ewelina Kosicka Gold Nanorods for Doxorubicin Delivery: Numerical Analysis of Electric Field Enhancement, Optical Properties and Drug Loading/Releasing Efficiency Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15051764 

Maarten van Kampen also joined the investigation:

Saba Afzal , Humaira Hussain , Muhammad Yasin Naz, Shazia Shukrullah , Irshad Ahmad , Muhammad Irfan , Salim Nasar Faraj Mursal , Stanislaw Legutko, Izabela Kruszelnicka, Dobrochna Ginter-Kramarczyk Catalytic Hydrogen Evolution from H2S Cracking over CrxZnS Catalyst in a Cylindrical Single-Layered Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Reactor Materials (2022) doi: 10.3390/ma15217426 

There are also nonsense references. Now, would you like to know what Wojtasek was accused of in the comment section? Organising “sabotage activities against Poland” on behalf of russia, and extortion. Maarten van Kampen was proven to be not a real person, but a russian bot:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Wojtasek belongs to a group that sends e-mails to Polish scientists demanding a ransom to stop the attacks. If you don’t pay the ransom, they lead to retraction of your articles. Now someone under the pseudonym van der cis is attacking Professor Legutko on Wojtasek’s request. There are no words in the language of civilized people to describe Mr. Wojtasek. I am convinced that the Russian trolls will run away and Wojtasek will go to jail for collaborating with Russian intelligence. The only good thing that can come out of this is if someone wants to exchange him for someone arrested by the Russians.“

The commenter also informed that “an entry on Pubpeer costs $500, while getting an article retracted costs $5,000. All transactions take place in bitcoins.” Another commenter implored Polish state security and President Nawrocki to arrest Wojtasek, and added:

“On Pubpeer, Wojtasek has just now gathered a group associated with Leonid Schnaidr to attack one of the articles in which Prof. Legutko is a co-author. This is an organized group linked to Russia, which, in addition to spreading disinformation, blackmails scientists by demanding money. […] The website for better science is judicially closed to the territory of Italy, therefore the Italian court compared it to pedophile and terrorist websites.“

Other comments were in the same vein, Wojtasek is a russian agent who must be arrested and deported, etc etc.

I must again explain here, that in Polish far-right nationalist circles, “pro-russian” has the same meaning as “fascist” in russia. Namely the exact opposite of its actual meaning, nothing but a slur applied to people one doesn’t like so that one can have them arrested or killed in good conscience. It is very confusing, because these Polish “patriots” actually would love russia to return and round up these alleged “russian agents”.

Meanwhile, Legutko’s protege and the former Vice-Rector of the Opole University of Technology Krolczyk continues suing the local newspaper Opolska, because their reporting about his papermilling activities led to his dismissal and the dismissal of his wife, Jolanta Krolczyk. The first hearing was on 5 May 2026, read the relevant Science Watch article from 10 May 2026:

“Irregularities regarding Grzegorz Królczyk’s publications and the retraction of some scientific articles were also described by Dr. Leonid Schneider on the “For Better Science” website. In his analyses, he drew attention to, among others: to co-authorship on a publication with Russian scientist Danil Yu. Pimenov and to continued publishing cooperation even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, despite previous declarations about breaking off contacts with the Russian side.”

Krolczyk’s association with the russian papermilling ork Danil Pimenov served as qualification for his new job at the… Military Aviation Academy (LAW). Yes, someone who collaborated with that rascist fanboy of putin, kadyrov and the war against Ukraine, is the perfect candidate to work for the Polish Air Force and to have access to NATO military secrets. A rabbit put in charge of a vegetable garden is a safer choice.

Above you see the newly minted LAW professor Krolczyk attending Legutko’s award ceremony in Lublin, the former is on the right in the photo, Legutko next to him:

Make your own jokes about Greg “Top Gun” Krolczyk.

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New name for Kittisack

A Thai papermiller, Kittisak Jermsittiparsert, suffered so many retractions, that he decided to change his name. He is now Kittisak Wongmahesak, professor at North Bangkok University, with additional affiliations in Malaysia. Here is the announcement:

Smut Clyde noticed the name change, and that thgis man now has three Google Scholar profiles under two names (as Jermsittiparsert until 2018 and until 2025 and as Wongmahesak now), and two ResearchGate profiles, his old one with 490 publications and his new one under new name with 47 publications.

The name change is perfectly understandable. Kitty Sack has almost 40 papermilled works on PubPeer, many of those already retracted. He briefly featured in this article:

Of course he didn’t stop papermilling and keeps churning out papers on random topics. OK, maybe not that random – Kitty Sack’s real passions may be these subjects of his studies: “gambling” and “prostitution” (Namdech et al 2026, Namdech et al 2026), “pornography” (Wongmahesak et al 2025, Wongmahesak et al 2025), “artificial wombs” and “women’s abortion rights” (Wongmahesak et al 2026, Chatterjee et al 2026) and “anti-aging” food supplements (Chandra et al 2026).

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Scholarly Publishing

The bands appear similar

MDPI corrected a very bad paper from Italy. Mara Cirone is associate professor at Sapienza University of Rome, and she published this just last year:

Michele Di Crosta, Francesca Chiara Ragone, Rossella Benedetti, Gabriella D’Orazi, Roberta Santarelli, Maria Saveria Gilardini Montani, Mara Cirone Valemetostat–SAHA-Driven Acetylation of p53 via SET/TAF-Iβ Displacement and p300 Activation Modulates Cell Cycle Regulators in Pancreatic Cancer Cells Biomedicines (2025) doi: 10.3390/biomedicines13092279 

The inter-paper duplication was found by pseudonymous sleuth Claire Francis, while another PubPeer user, Vaunthompsonia cristata found that comment the gel bands in Fig 4A “share unique shape characteristic when mirrored horizontally” (blue boxes).

In January 2026, Cirone replied on PubPeer with pictures of what was supposed to be raw data, and stated:

“The bands appear similar; however, they correspond to different proteins and were obtained from separate Western blot experiments, as already answered to section managing editor of MDPI”

That was a lie, the bands were duplicated. The Correction from 20 May 2026 admitted it:

“In the original publication [1], there was a mistake in Figure 5 as published.

The mistake consists of the overlap between the lane corresponding to Lamin b for PT45 cells in Figure 5B and the lane corresponding to GADPH (p21) for PT45 cells in Figure 4A, taken from a previously published paper by the same authors [2].

The corrected Figure 5 appears below. The authors state that the scientific conclusions are unaffected. This correction was approved by the Academic Editor. The original publication has also been updated.”

No mention of the cloned and rotated gel band though. Naturally, Cirone has more on PubPeer, for example she also posted “raw data” to prove that the gel bands were not identical:

Rossella Benedetti, Maria Anele Romeo, Andrea Arena , Maria Saveria Gilardini Montani, Livia Di Renzo, Gabriella D’Orazi, Mara Cirone ATF6 prevents DNA damage and cell death in colon cancer cells undergoing ER stress Cell Death Discovery (2022) doi: 10.1038/s41420-022-01085-3 

In the same journal by Nature Portfolio, run by Gerry Melino and his mostly Italian friends:

Rossella Benedetti , Michele Di Crosta , Maria Saveria Gilardini Montani , Gabriella D’Orazi , Mara Cirone Mutant p53 upregulates HDAC6 to resist ER stress and facilitates Ku70 deacetylation, which prevents its degradation and mitigates DNA damage in colon cancer cells Cell Death Discovery (2025) doi: 10.1038/s41420-025-02433-9 

No comment from Cirone here. And again this Cell Death and Depravity dump:

M Granato , V Lacconi , M Peddis , L V Lotti , L D Renzo , R Gonnella , R Santarelli , P Trivedi , L Frati , G D’Orazi , A Faggioni, M Cirone HSP70 inhibition by 2-phenylethynesulfonamide induces lysosomal cathepsin D release and immunogenic cell death in primary effusion lymphoma Cell Death and Disease (2013) doi: 10.1038/cddis.2013.263 

At least MDPI highlighted that fake trash with a correction. Cell Death and Depravity does nothing, certainly not against fellow Italians.

Cirone’s regular coauthor above is Gabriella D’Orazi, associate professor at the UniCamillus University in Rome. She has her own PubPeer record, often with the aforementioned Silvia Soddu and the later Ada Sacchi. Since we spoke of Cell Death and Depravity, look at this:

A Marchetti , B Cecchinelli , M D’Angelo , G D’Orazi , M Crescenzi , A Sacchi , S Soddu p53 can inhibit cell proliferation through caspase-mediated cleavage of ERK2/MAPK Cell Death and Differentiation (2004) doi: 10.1038/sj.cdd.4401368 

But D’Orazi shouldn’t blame her coauthors. I invite you to try and find an innocent explanation for this:

Lavinia Nardinocchi, Rosa Puca , David Givol , Gabriella D’Orazi Counteracting MDM2-induced HIPK2 downregulation restores HIPK2/p53 apoptotic signaling in cancer cells FEBS Letters (2010) doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2010.09.018 

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Looks like an accidental error to me

Nature portfolio journal Oncogene expresses concerns for Antony Braithwaite, professor at University of Otago in New Zealand and head of unit at University of Sydney in Australia. The paper was flagged on PubPeer already in 2013:

J A Royds, M Hibma , B R Dix , L Hananeia , I A Russell , A Wiles , D Wynford-Thomas , A W Braithwaite p53 promotes adenoviral replication and increases late viral gene expression Oncogene (2006) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1209185 

Braithwaite reacted only in September 2025 with this reply on PubPeer:

“Looks like an accidental error to me. It does not change the conclusion as the actin is a loading control. Regardless of the error, all the actin band are about the same size, so each gel track had an equal loading of total protein.“

On 29 April 2026, this Editorial Expression of Concern was published:

“The Editors-in-Chief would like to alert readers that concerns were raised regarding a high image similarity within the article. Specifically, Figure 1b, actin (left panel) and Figure 1b, actin (right panel) appear to partially overlap with one another (horizontally flipped). Upon request, the authors could not retrieve the original raw data due to the age of the article, and were unable to provide a satisfactory response to the concern. Readers are advised to interpret the data listed above with caution.”

We are informed that Braithwaite “did not respond to correspondence from the Publisher about this Editorial Expression of Concern“.

Braithwaite’s British coauthor David Wynford-Thomas, former formerly Dean of Medicine at Cardiff University, now Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of College of Medicine at University of Leicester, has some stuff on PubPeer. Those are old papers with possibly inappropriately spliced gels, common author on which is his former mentee Véronique Gire.

But Braithwaite has more serious stuff on PubPeer, and it is not just spliced gels Lasham et al 2003 or “accidentally” duplicated gels like Arsic et al 2021. This one, also in Oncogene, also featuring the first author from above, Janice Royds, should also arouse at least some concerns:

Craig Homer , Deborah A Knight , Lynne Hananeia , Philip Sheard , Joanna Risk , Annette Lasham , Janice A Royds , Antony W Braithwaite Y-box factor YB1 controls p53 apoptotic function Oncogene (2005) doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1208998 

Royds later authored the textbook “Molecular Biology: A Very Short Introduction“, apparently she is an expert. Here is another “accidental error” by Braithwaite and Royds:

Tania L. Slatter , Noelyn Hung , Hamish Campbell , Carina Rubio , Reena Mehta , Prudence Renshaw , Gail Williams , Michelle Wilson , Afra Engelmann , Aaron Jeffs , Janice A. Royds , Margaret A. Baird , Antony W. Braithwaite Hyperproliferation, cancer, and inflammation in mice expressing a Δ133p53-like isoform Blood (2011) doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-11-321851 

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Science Breakthroughs

A clerical oversight to ensure the distinctness

Cell embarrassed itself with a likely fraudulent paper making big fake claims. Ok, I was joking, Cell did not embarrass themselves, they publish such papers all the time and almost never retract them, which is exactly why the journal is so popular and influential.

It is about the discovery of magnetogenetics! The authors are, led by professor Jongpil Kim from Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea. He is a former mentee of the biggest bigwig in stem cell research, the MIT professor Rudolf Jaenisch. New Scientist wrote on 30 April 2026:

“Kim’s team claims to have made so-called magnetogenetics real, by developing a switch that can turn on genes in genetically engineered cells when triggered by a specific magnetic signal that can reach any part of the human body. What’s more, Kim says this signal had no detectable effects of any kind on the mice it was tested on unless the switch was genetically engineered into them, suggesting it should be safe for medical use.

Specifically, Kim’s team applied to cells a 4-kilohertz electromagnetic square wave with a strength of 2 millitesla that was turned on and off 60 times a second, that is, at 60 hertz. By interacting with a protein called cytochrome b5, the paper says, this signal induced an oscillation of calcium ions with a period of just under a minute. […]

This oscillation somehow triggers the “on switch”, or promoter sequence, for a gene called LGR4, the team says. […]The paper describes this switch working in mice and human cells of various types, and in mice.”

The paper was apparently in peer review for three years. Kim is said to be “working with several biotech companies” already. As the Nobel Prize was already being engraved for Kim, criticism arrived. New Scientist quotes the physicist Andrew York, who is unconvinced that “a 60-Hz signal would drive an oscillation with a period of nearly a minute” and calls the finding “incredibly implausible“. York also points out that the alleged effect is so massive that it would affect “a huge range of biological processes in cells“, but in the study it “turns on just one gene with no other observable effects.”

Another critic, Adam Cohen of Harvard University, asked why “the modified cells starting to luminesce many hours before the switch was even activated“, a concern which Kim dismissed as “a computational artefact caused by the curve-smoothing process“. The magazine also mentions concerns on PubPeer:

Junyeop Kim , Yerim Hwang , Sumin Kim , Daeyeol Kwon , Jeonghyun Park , Byounggook Cho , Saemin An , Soi Kang , Yunkyung Kim , Seonghun Kim , Christopher J. Lengner, Soochan Kim , Youngeun Kwon , Jung-Suk Sung , Jongpil Kim Electromagnetic field-inducible in vivo gene switch for remote spatiotemporal control of gene expression Cell (2026) doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.03.029 

Kim posted this idiotic explanation:

“Our investigation confirmed that an inadvertent error occurred during the final assembly of the figure panels, resulting in the image duplication you identified. During the data verification stage, we performed a routine quality control check to ensure the distinctness of each panel. As part of this internal validation, the “Saline” image was temporarily mirrored and overlaid with the “Control” image for comparison. Due to a clerical oversight during the final saving process, this overlaid file was inadvertently retained in the final figure instead of being replaced with the correct “Saline” data. […] This error was a technical oversight during layout preparation and does not alter the scientific conclusions or the overall integrity of the study.”

Yes, Kim says that they routinely duplicate and rotate images in his lab, but this is how quality science is supposed to be done. You laugh, but Cell editors love to hear such shameless bullshit. Don’t expect a correction.

More magnetism, again with Christopher Lengner, department chair at University of Pennsylvania, and another former mentee of Jaenisch. It seems, Kim and Lengner were inspired by Haruko Obokata’s STAP cell fraud, where pluripotent cells were generated by magic:

Soonbong Baek , Xiaoyuan Quan , Soochan Kim , Christopher Lengner , Jung-Keug Park , Jongpil Kim Electromagnetic fields mediate efficient cell reprogramming into a pluripotent state ACS Nano (2014) doi: 10.1021/nn502923s 

No correction, no retraction, no nothing. Science moved on, nobody speaks of this once-revolutionary breakthrough anymore.

Here, Kim cured Alzheimer’s with nanotech-gene-engineering, and then mocked Nature‘s raw data policies (with zero consequences):

Hanseul Park , Jungju Oh , Gayong Shim , Byounggook Cho , Yujung Chang , Siyoung Kim , Soonbong Baek , Hongwon Kim , Jeain Shin , Hwan Choi , Junsang Yoo , Junyeop Kim , Won Jun , Minhyung Lee , Christopher J Lengner , Yu-Kyoung Oh , Jongpil Kim In vivo neuronal gene editing via CRISPR–Cas9 amphiphilic nanocomplexes alleviates deficits in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease Nature Neuroscience (2019) doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0352-0  

These gels are likely digitally fabricated. The study was celebrated in the media as magic “DNA “Scissors”, with which Alzheimer’s could be cured completely: “Within 8 to 12 weeks of treatment with the CRISPR-Cas9 technology, the plaque surrounding affected neurons in the mice dramatically decreased and their cognitive functions improved substantially.“

Here, Parkinson’s was addressed:

Ji-Yeun Park , Seung-Nam Kim , Junsang Yoo , Jaehwan Jang , Ahreum Lee , Ju-Young Oh , Hongwon Kim , Seung Tack Oh , Seong-Uk Park , Jongpil Kim, Hi-Joon Park, Songhee Jeon Novel Neuroprotective Effects of Melanin-Concentrating Hormone in Parkinson’s Disease Molecular Neurobiology (2017) doi: 10.1007/s12035-016-0258-8 

Here an ancient one by Kim, as PhD student of Asa Abeliovich at Columbia University:

Jongpil Kim , Keiichi Inoue , Jennifer Ishii , William B Vanti , Sergey V Voronov , Elizabeth Murchison, Gregory Hannon , Asa Abeliovich A MicroRNA feedback circuit in midbrain dopamine neurons Science (2007) doi: 10.1126/science.1140481 

Kim has more stuff on PubPeer, including with Jaenisch and his another fmaous mentee with irreproducibility issues, Jacob Hanna (read below).

Here a nice paper from Jaenisch’s lab, with Kim, Lengner, and Hanna, on PubPeer since 2014 and never corrected:

Jongpil Kim , Christopher J. Lengner , Oktay Kirak , Jacob Hanna , John P. Cassady , Michael A. Lodato , Su Wu , Dina A. Faddah , Eveline J. Steine , Qing Gao , Dongdong Fu , Meelad Dawlaty , Rudolf Jaenisch Reprogramming of postnatal neurons into induced pluripotent stem cells by defined factors Stem Cells (2011) doi: 10.1002/stem.641

Unlike the STAP-fraudster Obokata (who is a woman), Kim (who is a man) kept his job, didn’t have to retract anything, and keeps publishing in top journals, which may or may not be due to a possible protection from his mentor Jaenisch.

Is it totally wrong of me to suspect Kim’s recent magnetogenetics garbage only made it into Cell because of Jaenisch?

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See them all moving around in their artificial eggs

The American de-extinction company Colossal is in all the global news again, either because the media is THAT corrupt, or because the media and its readership are THAT stupid.

Colossal was founded by the tech bro Ben Lamm and MIT’s eugenicist George Church, and the media duly keeps celebrating them for every stupid little thing they announce. The wooly mice which are almost the mammoths (March 2025 Shorts), and of course the fake “dire wolves”:

And then there were also announcements to de-extinct the thylacine (August 2022 Shorts), the dodo (September 2025 Shorts), and the moa (July 2025 Shorts). Now the moa is back in the news, here Time (the magazine which exclusively embarrassed itself with the dire wolves before), on 19 May 2026 with the totally sane headline “Chicks Hatch From World’s First Artificial Eggs—A Breakthrough Key to Bringing Giant Birds Back From Extinction“:

“On May 19, Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences, which last year made headlines when it effectively de-extincted the dire wolf, announced that it had hatched a flock of 26 live chicks from fully artificial eggs. The technology behind the breakthrough can be later applied to bring back the dodo and New Zealand’s giant, flightless moa—both on Colossal’s de-extinction “to do” list.

“Every new scalable system for de-extinction is ultimately a biology problem wrapped in an engineering problem,” said Colossal co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm, […]

“We have not set a date publicly [for when a moa could hatch],” says Lamm. “But I think it’s the mid 2030s.””

These are no “fully artificial eggs”, even if Colossal calls them that. Gizmodo added an extra tech-twist with the headline “Baby Chicks From a 3D-Printed Artificial Egg“.

Also MIT Technology Review speaks of 3D-printed artificial eggs and quotes an Australian who was originally about to de-extinct the thylacine:

““To see them all moving around in their artificial eggs was absolutely mind blowing,” says Andrew Pask, the company’s chief biology officer. “You really feel you can grow life outside of the womb.””

No matter what authoritative media says, those are at best artificial eggshells, not artificial eggs. And those are neither novel nor revolutionary, as even The Guardian pointed out: “It is already possible to hatch chicks from artificial eggshells but the survival rate is limited because chicks may not get enough oxygen. Colossal suggests its new platform, a silicone membrane, is better than existing “ex-ovo” approaches“. Time however blathers about “a titanium structure […] with hundreds of hexagonal pores to allow for gas exchange“.

Colossal’s other co-founder Church was quoted by Forbes:

““The embryo needs a place to grow that recapitulates the gas exchange, humidity, and mechanical environment of a natural egg — at whatever size the species requires,” Church said. “Colossal’s artificial egg solves the scalability dimension. It is a platform technology, and its implications extend well beyond any single species.””

Apparently, the only obstacle in the way of de-extincting the giant moa lies in the size of its eggs, which were bigger than those of today’s emus, which Colossal plans to gene edit into moas (similar to gene editing dogs into dire wolves and mice into mammoths). Same limitation with turning pigeons into dodos, hence the announcements for SCALABLE silicone eggshell in a SCALABLE titanium holder. Will you stop laughing please, this is serious, cutting-edge science?

As mentioned, there is no novelty in the Colossal artificial eggshell technology, i.e. if it even works as described, because there is not even a preprint out there to support the company’s claims. In any case, all this has certainly nothing to do with moas or dodos. But the media already interviews experts on where all those de-extincted moas, dodos, mammoths etc can be kept.

It seems, some space for moas is already reserved in Peter Jackson‘s back yard. The film director is also a Colossal investor and features in the promo video.

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