Schneider Shorts 3.07.2026 – With collaboration and determination, we can move innovations from bench to bedside

Schneider Shorts of 3 July 2026 – a Georgian dream in Switzerland, a German professor who overdid his papermilling, a Chinese refugee chased by retractions, a great Italian who discovered Imanitib, and the mystery question of who is protecting a US-Iranian fraudster from retractions?

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Scholarly Publishing

With collaboration and determination, we can move innovations from bench to bedside

Welcome to the new episode of our regular show “The Sleuth and The Proper Channels! This time, the pseudonymous Claire Francis contacted Elsevier.

The authors are from Georgia (the nation in Caucasus, not a state in USA!), the lead author is Ekaterine Berishvili who until 2016 used to be associate professor at Tbilisi Medical University in Georgia before she moved to University of Geneva in Switzerland and became full professor there, running “the Islet Isolation and Transplantation Laboratory at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) — the only dedicated laboratory of its kind in Switzerland“.

The following paper, about islet transplantation, was central to Berishvili’s move from no-money in Georgia to the huge salary, EU grant money and prestige of Switzerland. What we see are those peculiar “corner clones” inside microscopy images, a topic I covered for example in November 2025 Shorts.

Here is the paper, one coauthor is the known American cheater Sanjeev Gupta of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, about whom you can read in November 2025 Shorts:

Z. Kakabadze , S. Gupta , A. Pileggi , R.D. Molano , C. Ricordi , G. Shatirishvili , G. Loladze , K. Mardaleishvili , M. Kakabadze , E. Berishvili Correction of Diabetes Mellitus by Transplanting Minimal Mass of Syngeneic Islets Into Vascularized Small Intestinal Segment American Journal of Transplantation (2013) doi: 10.1111/ajt.12412 

On 25 June 2026, Elsevier#s Research Integrity & Publication Ethics Center of Expertise wrote to Claire Francis:

“Following investigation which confirmed the reported anomalies in Figure 2-Panel F, the authors provided original  micrographs demonstrating that the region of experimental interest in the study was unaltered.

A corrigendum has been posted…”

Here is that Corrigendum, posted in fact already on 1 April 2026:

“The authors regret that, in the originally published article, Figure 2F contained a figure assembly error. The authors have replaced Figure 2F with a corrected panel generated from the original raw micrograph. This correction does not affect the underlying data, results, or conclusions of the study. The authors apologize for the error and for any inconvenience it may have caused.”

Do you really believe a heavily underfunded lab which Berishvili left behind in Georgia ten years ago, was able to store microscopy images for 13 years and then easily find the correct images? What else do you believe in?

Now, with corner clones authors usually blame the publishers for having introduced these Photoshop edits to make the image layout fit the journal’s standards, and sometimes the publishers do accept this blame. But here Elsevier blurted it out: corner clones are indeed created by authors. Normally people do this to remove original labels from STOLEN images, but of course Berishvili’s lab would never do that.

Yes, she has more on PubPeer, mostly with Gupta. Again on islet transplantation, Berishvili’s old Head of Department from Tbilissi, Zurab Kakabadze, is again on board:

Brigid Joseph , Ekaterine Berishvili , Daniel Benten , Vinay Kumaran , Ekaterine Liponava , Kuldeep Bhargava , Christopher Palestro, Zurab Kakabadze , Sanjeev Gupta Isolated small intestinal segments support auxiliary livers with maintenance of hepatic functions Nature Medicine (2004) doi: 10.1038/nm1057 

See this same kind of image irregularities? Springer Nature didn’t dare to retract, but issued an Editorial Expression of Concern on 14 April 2026:

“The Editors would like to alert the readers that concerns have been raised regarding some of the data presented in the figures, specifically:

• Fig. 1d appears to have repetitive patterns in the image;
• Fig. 3f FGF-1 lane 3 appears highly similar to HGFR lane 2;
• Fig. 3f TGF-β1 lanes 4 and 5 appear highly similar;
• VEGFR-1 lanes 2 and 5 appear highly similar.

The Editors therefore no longer have confidence in the presented data.

Sanjeev Gupta has not responded to any correspondence from the Editors about this Editorial Expression of Concern. The Editors have not been able to obtain current email addresses for the other authors.”

Berishvili and Gupta again with Gupta’s mentees Brigid Joseph (still at Albert Einstein College of Medicine) and the German Daniel Benten (now clinic head in Hamburg):

Mari Inada , Daniel Benten , Kang Cheng , Brigid Joseph , Ekaterine Berishvili, Sunil Badve , Lennart Logdberg , Mariana Dabeva , Sanjeev Gupta Stage-specific regulation of adhesion molecule expression segregates epithelial stem/progenitor cells in fetal and adult human livers Hepatology International (2008) doi: 10.1007/s12072-007-9023-4 

And this, a blot reused from an older paper by Gupta:

Sriram Bandi , Brigid Joseph , Ekaterine Berishvili, Rohit Singhania , Yao-Ming Wu , Kang Cheng , Sanjeev Gupta Perturbations in Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutant Signaling Pathways After Drug-Induced Acute Liver Failure and Their Reversal During Rescue of Animals by Cell Therapy American Journal Of Pathology (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2010.11.001 

As Belishvili said on the occasion of receiving huge EU funding for “bioartificial pancreas”:

““Breakthroughs must be accessible — not exclusive. In 1921, Banting and Best discovered insulin in a modest Toronto lab, driven by urgency, not bureaucracy. Banting said, ‘Insulin belongs to the world.’ Today our science is stronger, but our hesitation is greater. With collaboration and determination, we can move innovations from bench to bedside,” concludes Prof. Berishvili.”

With Gupta, she sure won’t hesistate to cure everything.

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Editor does not have sufficient evidence to retract

Elsevier and a learned society decided that science is supposed to be fake, the faker the more reliable, at least when the author is an American. The hero is Ali Khademhosseini, a shameless regenerative medicine cheater and lab grown meat entrepreneur, cheater who so far avoided retractions.

I can’t explain what’s Khademhosseini’s secret to avoiding retractions is. Maybe once the fraud reaches beyond outrageous, people stop caring? We see this daily in US politics. Anyway, here is the Official Journal of the Controlled Release Society, and of the Japan Society of Drug Delivery System:

Danial Barati , Seyed Ramin Pajoum Shariati , Seyedsina Moeinzadeh , Juan M. Melero-Martin, Ali Khademhosseini, Esmaiel Jabbari Spatiotemporal release of BMP-2 and VEGF enhances osteogenic and vasculogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial colony-forming cells co-encapsulated in a patterned hydrogel Journal of Controlled Release (2016) doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2015.12.031 

In November 2025, an Expression of Concern, was published, informing us that “The Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Controlled Release began an investigation in response to the reader Elisabeth Bik,” and:

“ While the original blots are no longer available, because of the university’s data retention policy, the authors stated that they are in the process of repeating some experiments to further validate their findings. After careful deliberation, the editorial team has concluded that while additional clarification is needed, the concerns pertaining to figs. 3, 4, and 5 which remain outstanding are unlikely to impact the wider conclusions of the article. […] The journal remains committed to maintaining the integrity of the scientific record and will update this notice should further information become available.”

On 20 June 2026, the Editor-in-Chief Stefaan De Smedt of Ghent University in Belgium, issued this Editor’ Note to announce his final decision:

“Based on the material available to the journal the Editor was not able to come to a conclusive decision about the article’s findings. Because original source images are unavailable and additional experimental verification was not provided, the journal is unable to fully resolve the outstanding image integrity questions for the specific figure panels that prompted the Expression of Concern. However, the Editor does not have sufficient evidence to retract the article.

Accordingly, the journal is concluding its investigation […] If further information becomes available that materially affects this assessment, the journal will consider whether additional action is required to correct the scholarly record, in line with COPE guidance.”

That is so breathtakingly bad that either Khademhosseini must have taken De Smedt’s family hostage (very unlikely), or… Well, here is the clue: De Smedt is a collaborator of Sabine Szunerits.

De Smedt is coauthor on two fraudulent papers by Szunerits (De Hoon et al 2023 and Barras et al 2021, in other journals) which his Ghent colleague and another coauthor Félix Sauvage has been trying to get retracted for some time already.

Actually, Khademhosseini does have one old retraction, “because of widespread plagiarism of text”. Khademhosseini et al 2007 was retracted in 2017 and guess in which journal. Journal of Controlled Release. The same one, yes.

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Retraction Watchdogging

This silly, honest mistake

A German professor loses a paper because of papermilling. Thomas Efferth is Head of Department of Pharmaceutical Biology at University of Mainz in Germany, he is also honorary professor at several Chinese universities, and wearer of various awards and a posh moustache.

Efferth’s papermilling already featured in October 2025 Shorts, due to the work of his former mentee from Egypt, Mohamed-Elamir Hegazy. Now Chinese papermills!

The following fabrication wasn’t even flagged on PubPeer before, all of Efferth’s coauthors belong to the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China, because that Elsevier journal Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy was so overrun by papermills that the Editor-in-Chief Danyelle Townsend had to mass- retract fake stuff to save her own position:

Wenwen Zhang , Hefei Wu , Shiman Luo , Xiaohua Lu , Xiyue Tan , Li Wen , Xiao Ma , Thomas Efferth Molecular insights into experimental models and therapeutics for cholestasis Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2024.116594 

Not even Efferth’s supreme skills of being a white German male professor helped, here is the retraction from 25 June 2026:

“An investigation conducted on behalf of the journal by Elseviers Research Integrity & Publishing Ethics team in coordination with the Editors identified serious concerns regarding the integrity of the publication. The investigation identified anomalous phrasing in the manuscript that make some passages difficult to parse.

Additionally, the investigation determined that the authors were requested by one of the reviewers to insert redundant references to their paper during the peer-review process.

The explanations provided by the authors did not restore the Editors confidence in the integrity of the publication process or in the reliability of the article as published and the Editor has determined that the article should be retracted.

The authors disagree with the retraction and dispute the grounds for it.”

As you understood, Efferth has more on PubPeer, and it is not just his stuff with Hegazy. Here another Chinese fabrication:

Sun-Dong Zhang , Peng Wang , Jing Zhang , Wei Wang , Li-Ping Yao , Cheng-Bo Gu , Thomas Efferth , Yu-Jie Fu 2′O-galloylhyperin attenuates LPS-induced acute lung injury via up-regulation antioxidation and inhibition of inflammatory responses in vivo Chemico-Biological Interactions (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2019.02.029   

The irony is that Efferth knew already a decade ago that his papers contained forgeries. This, from Taiwan, was flagged on PubPeer in December 2016:

Shu-Yi Yin , Thomas Efferth , Feng-Yin Jian , Yung-Hsiang Chen , Chia-I Liu , Andrew H.J. Wang , Yet-Ran Chen , Pei-Wen Hsiao , Ning-Sun Yang Immunogenicity of mammary tumor cells can be induced by shikonin via direct binding-interference with hnRNPA1 Oncotarget (2016) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.9660

The lead authors Shu-Yi Yin and Ning-Sun Yang replied immediately, apologised for “this silly, honest mistake” and announced a correction. Which was published almost 2 years later, in August 2018, referencing an investigation by Academia Sinica Ethics Committee in Taipei, which found:

“The partial duplication of Figure 4a and 4b is judged to be a mistake during data processing, rather than a research misconduct.”

Indian fabrications also, this one rotting on PubPeer since 2019:

Ananda Mookerjee, Jayati Mookerjee Basu , Surajit Majumder , Shilpak Chatterjee , Gouri S Panda , Pranabananda Dutta , Smarajit Pal , Pratima Mukherjee , Thomas Efferth, Syamal Roy , Soumitra K Choudhuri A novel copper complex induces ROS generation in doxorubicin resistant Ehrlich ascitis carcinoma cells and increases activity of antioxidant enzymes in vital organs in vivo BMC Cancer (2006) doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-6-267

Turkish collaborators helped Efferth cure cancer with Aloe vera:

Nadire Özenver, Mohamed Saeed, Lütfiye Ömur Demirezer, Thomas Efferth Aloe-emodin as drug candidate for cancer therapy Oncotarget (2018) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.24880 

The recent Correction from 24 April 2026 addressed further issues:

“”This article has been corrected:In Figure 9A, the flow cytometry plot for 4 × IC50 was unintentionally repeated instead of the 2 × IC50 plot. This has been corrected using the original data. Additionally, the authors identified two errors in Figure 9C. First, the column graph for the 0.1 μM doxorubicin concentration was found to be inconsistent with its corresponding flow cytometry plot. Second, the column graph for the 1 μM doxorubicin concentration incorrectly indicated a percentage of AV-/PI- cell population of 1% instead of the 0.1% shown in the flow cytometry plot. Both graphs in Figure 9C have now been corrected to accurately reflect the relevant flow cytometry data. These corrections do not change the conclusions of the paper. The authors apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

Here we have Iraqi papermillers visiting Efferth’s lab in Mainz:

Aveen N Adham , Alaadin M Naqishbandi, Thomas Efferth Cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction by Fumaria officinalis extracts in leukemia and multiple myeloma cell lines Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2020.113458 

How do we know it’s papermilled? Well, Smut Clyde noticed that this study by Efferth contained inappropriate references, and thus “contributed to the highly-cited status of Chao Zhao’s papers on treating corn leaves for biofuel extraction, somehow under the impression that they were about extracting the active ingredients of herbal medicines.“

Actually, Efferth doesn’t really need foreign papermills to produce great science.

Qiaoli Zhao , Andreana N. Assimopoulou , Sabine M. Klauck , Harilaos Damianakos , Ioanna Chinou , Nadine Kretschmer , José-Luis Rios , Vassilios P. Papageorgiou , Rudolf Bauer , Thomas Efferth Inhibition of c-MYC with involvement of ERK/JNK/MAPK and AKT pathways as a novel mechanism for shikonin and its derivatives in killing leukemia cells Oncotarget (2015) doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.5380 

Ironically, a figure from that paper was stolen by another set of cheaters led by G. Larry Maxwell (at US military!), and published in the same journal Oncotarget as Waheed et al 2017, and retracted for fraud in July 2025, the resulting misconduct investigation was covered by Retraction Watch.

If you have a problem with the following paper, please complain to the Editor-in-Chief of this Elsevier journal, Thomas Efferth:

Ejlal A. Omer , Min Zhou , Wynand P. Roos , Luay J. Rashan , Heinz-Herbert Fiebig , Sabine M. Klauck , Letian Shan , Thomas Efferth Oleandrin-mediated suppression of MELK induces apoptosis, autophagy, and ferroptosis in human non-small cell lung cancer cells Phytomedicine (2025) doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2025.157173 

Efferth also befriended the Portuguese cheater Patricia Rijo, here we have hand-drawn error bars:

Eva María Domínguez-Martín , Mariana Magalhães , Ana María Díaz-Lanza , Mário P. Marques , Salvatore Princiotto , Ana M. Gómez , Thomas Efferth , Célia Cabral, Patricia Rijo Phytochemical Study and Antiglioblastoma Activity Assessment of Plectranthus hadiensis (Forssk.) Schweinf. ex Sprenger var. hadiensis Stems Molecules (2022) doi: 10.3390/molecules27123813 

And here is a handy list of papermillers and occasional papermilling antivaxxers whom Efferth befriended, all on one editorial, For more details, click on the names of Efferth’s friends:

Evgenios Agathokleous, Damià Barceló , Michael Aschner , Ricardo Antunes Azevedo , Prosun Bhattacharya , David Costantini , G. Christopher Cutler , Alessandra De Marco , Anca Oana Docea , José G. Dórea , Stephen O. Duke , Thomas Efferth , Despo Fatta-Kassinos , Vasileios Fotopoulos , Antonio Ginebreda , Raul Narciso C. Guedes , A. Wallace Hayes , Ivo Iavicoli , Olga-Ioanna Kalantzi , Takayoshi Koike , Demetrios Kouretas, Manish Kumar, José E. Manautou, Michael N. Moore, Elena Paoletti, Josep Peñuelas, Yolanda Picó, Russel J. Reiter, Ramin Rezaee, Jörg Rinklebe, Teresa Rocha-Santos, Pierre Sicard, Christian Sonne, Christopher Teaf, Aristidis Tsatsakis, Alexander I. Vardavas, Wenjie Wang, Eddy Y. Zeng, Edward J. Calabrese Rethinking Subthreshold Effects in Regulatory Chemical Risk Assessments Environmental Science &Technology (2022) doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c02896 

That effing Efferth.

Efferth didn’t reply to my email.

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The institutions have requested that the Research Article be retracted

The cancer researcher Xiongbin Lu was suddenly showered with retractions, three years after he retracted a previously corrected paper Wang et al 2018.

Lu used to be professor at Indiana University in USA, but then my reporting and notification caused a research misconduct investigation there, at the end of which he very quietly disappeared (read May 2024 Shorts and my article from April 2021).

Lu’s wife Xinna Zhang is still listed as assistant professor by the Indiana University, and she still publishes with this affiliation. Quite possibly they separated: after all, her estranged husband seems to have started a new life in China:

Apparently one needs to have at least 20 fake papers on PubPeer and a pile of retraction to apply for that job?

These are Lu’s most recent retractions, all in Nature Communications. This mouse study was done in collaboration with Xiaoming He of University of Maryland (who has much more on PubPeer, but all with Lu):

Hai Wang , Yutong Liang , Yue Yin , Jie Zhang , Wen Su , Alisa M. White , Bin Jiang , Jiangsheng Xu , Yuntian Zhang , Samantha Stewart , Xiongbin Lu , Xiaoming He Carbon nano-onion-mediated dual targeting of P-selectin and P-glycoprotein to overcome cancer drug resistance Nature Communications (2021) doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20588-0 

The retraction appeared on 24 June 2026:

“This paper is being retracted after a joint research misconduct investigation conducted by Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park found that Figure 6b and Supplementary Fig. 24b contain irregularities. The Editor has therefore lost confidence in this paper.”

This paper was previously corrected because these geniuses misspelled the word “theranostic’”. Now it’s gone for good:

Hai Wang , Pranay Agarwal , Shuting Zhao , Jianhua Yu , Xiongbin Lu , Xiaoming He A biomimetic hybrid nanoplatform for encapsulation and precisely controlled delivery of theranostic agents Nature Communications (2015) doi: 10.1038/ncomms10081 

The retraction from 26 June 2026 went:

“This paper is being retracted after a joint research misconduct investigation conducted by Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park found that Figure 4a and Supplementary Fig. 22 contain irregularities. The Editor has therefore lost confidence in this paper.

Xiaoming He disagrees with this retraction…”

And a third recent retraction for Lu and He:

Hai Wang , Zan Gao , Xuanyou Liu , Pranay Agarwal , Shuting Zhao , Daniel W. Conroy , Guang Ji , Jianhua Yu , Christopher P. Jaroniec , Zhenguo Liu , Xiongbin Lu , Xiaodong Li , Xiaoming He Targeted production of reactive oxygen species in mitochondria to overcome cancer drug resistance Nature Communications (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02915-8 

Goodye, fake cancer cure. The retraction from 26 June 2026 stated:

“This paper is being retracted after a joint research misconduct investigation conducted by Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park found that Figure 7e and Supplementary Fig. 29 contain irregularities. The Editor has therefore lost confidence in this paper.”

Number 4, here is Lu’s wife again, as last author:

Yunhua Liu , Jiangsheng Xu , Hyun Ho Choi , Cecil Han , Yuanzhang Fang , Yujing Li , Kevin Van Der Jeught , Hanchen Xu , Lu Zhang , Michael Frieden , Lifei Wang , Haniyeh Eyvani , Yifan Sun , Gang Zhao , Yuntian Zhang , Sheng Liu , Jun Wan , Cheng Huang , Guang Ji , Xiongbin Lu, Xiaoming He, Xinna Zhang Targeting 17q23 amplicon to overcome the resistance to anti-HER2 therapy in HER2+ breast cancer Nature Communications (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07264-0 

Back in 2021, this study was described by Indiana University as “game-changer”, and that Lu already patented his cancer cure. Now the paper is gone also, the retraction from 29 June 2026 stated:

“This paper is being retracted after a joint research misconduct investigation conducted by Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park found that Figure 5a/b/d/e and Supplementary Fig. 9 contain irregularities. The Editor has therefore lost confidence in this paper.”

Lu and He also lost this paper earlier this year:

Hanchen Xu , Kevin Van Der Jeught, Zhuolong Zhou , Lu Zhang , Tao Yu , Yifan Sun , Yujing Li , Changlin Wan , Kaman So , Degang Liu , Michael Frieden, Yuanzhang Fang , Amber L. Mosley , Xiaoming He , Xinna Zhang , George E. Sandusky , Yunlong Liu , Samy O. Meroueh , Chi Zhang , Aruna B. Wijeratne , Cheng Huang, Guang Ji, Xiongbin Lu Atractylenolide I enhances responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade therapy by activating tumor antigen presentation The Journal of clinical investigation (2021) doi: 10.1172/jci146832 

Here the Retraction from 16 January 2026:

“Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park jointly notified the JCI of data falsification in Figures 2B and 6D and misconduct findings against Xiongbin Lu and Hanchen Xu. In accordance with the investigation committee’s recommendation, the JCI is retracting this article.

An independent investigation by Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is ongoing.”

The journal also retracted this paper, where more fraud was found recently:

Yunhua Liu, Hanchen Xu , Kevin Van Der Jeught , Yujing Li , Sheng Liu , Lu Zhang , Yuanzhang Fang , Xinna Zhang , Milan Radovich, Bryan P. Schneider, Xiaoming He , Cheng Huang , Chi Zhang , Jun Wan , Guang Ji, Xiongbin Lu Somatic mutation of the cohesin complex subunit confers therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer The Journal of clinical investigation (2018) doi: 10.1172/jci98727 

Also here the retraction arrived on 16 January 2026:

“Indiana University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park jointly notified the JCI of data falsification in Supplemental Figure 8A and Supplemental Figure 9E and misconduct findings against Xiongbin Lu and Yunhua Liu. In accordance with the investigation committee’s recommendation, the JCI is retracting this article.

An independent investigation by Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is ongoing.”

Now what do say to this, the full professor He was kicked out by his University of Maryland also and buggered off to China:

Lu and his (ex?)wife also recently lost this:

Yujing Li , Yifan Sun , Michael Kulke , Torsten Hechler , Kevin Van Der Jeught , Tianhan Dong , Bin He , Kathy D. Miller , Milan Radovich , Bryan P. Schneider , Andreas Pahl , Xinna Zhang , Xiongbin Lu Targeted immunotherapy for HER2-low breast cancer with 17p loss Science Translational Medicine (2021) doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abc6894 

In March 2021, Lu went to PubPeer to blame his lab members Yujing Li and Yifan Sun, apologised for “our sloppiness” and assured that “this mistake does not affect the conclusion“. The Retraction from 15 April 2026 mentioned:

“A joint research misconduct investigation involving Indiana University, the Ohio State University, and the University of Maryland, College Park determined that falsification occurred during creation of fig. S9C. The institutions have requested that the Research Article be retracted, and Science Translational Medicine is, therefore, retracting the paper in full..“

Retraction Watch covered some of Lu’s retractions in April 2026, interviewed the sleuth Actinopolyspora biskrensis, ignored his comments on PubPeer referencing For Better Science, and instead pretended that nobody before ever wrote about Lu or notified his university 5 years ago.

Here another fabrication by Lu, his (ex?) wife and He, its past correction needs to be ungraded:

Zhuolong Zhou, Kevin Van Der Jeught , Yuanzhang Fang , Tao Yu , Yujing Li , Zheng Ao , Sheng Liu , Lu Zhang , Yang Yang , Haniyeh Eyvani , Mary L. Cox , Xiyu Wang , Xiaoming He , Guang Ji , Bryan P. Schneider , Feng Guo , Jun Wan , Xinna Zhang, Xiongbin Lu An organoid-based screen for epigenetic inhibitors that stimulate antigen presentation and potentiate T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity Nature Biomedical Engineering (2021)
doi: 10.1038/s41551-021-00805-x 

The Correction from August 2023 fixed Figure 4C and provided “all original flow-cytometrical images for the analysis of 55 tumours in seven groups […] as Supplementary Information“. Now another PubPeer sleuth found this:

Is Nature a good journal? I’m asking because they accepted a fraudulent correction from Lu, Zhang, He and Lu’s former colleagues back in Texas, the mega-cheaters Anil Sood and Gabriel Lopez-Berestein:

Yunhua Liu, Xinna Zhang , Cecil Han , Guohui Wan , Xingxu Huang , Cristina Ivan , Dahai Jiang , Cristian Rodriguez-Aguayo , Gabriel Lopez-Berestein , Pulivarthi H. Rao , Dipen M. Maru , Andreas Pahl , Xiaoming He , Anil K. Sood, Lee M. Ellis, Jan Anderl , Xiongbin Lu TP53 loss creates therapeutic vulnerability in colorectal cancer Nature (2015) doi: 10.1038/nature14418 

In March 2021, Lu went to PubPeer to “apologize for this unintended and inadvertent error” and issued a correction, which was published in August 2021 to declare that “this mistake does not affect the conclusions“.

Then, more was found, including in the new

Maybe this also needs to be upgraded to retraction? Or too much money at stake?

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Change History

First retraction for the Top Italian Scientist, Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini, 69 years old and professor of hematology at the University of Milan Bicocca, who credits himself with the development of the chemotherapeutic drug Imatinib (Gleevec)

Now this paper is gone, it didn’t help to flood the zone with swarms of tiny western blots, Claire Francis still found duplications:

Laura Mazzera , Manuela Abeltino , Guerino Lombardi , Anna Maria Cantoni , Stefano Jottini , Attilio Corradi , Micaela Ricca , Elena Rossetti , Federico Armando , Angelo Peli , Anna Ferrari , Giovanni Martinelli , Maria Teresa Scupoli , Carlo Visco , Massimiliano Bonifacio , Alessia Ripamonti , Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini, Antonio Bonati , Roberto Perris, Paolo Lunghi MEK1/2 regulate normal BCR and ABL1 tumor-suppressor functions to dictate ATO response in TKI-resistant Ph+ leukemia Leukemia (2023) doi: 10.1038/s41375-023-01940-x 

The article was labelled as retracted on 24 June 2026, but the notcie didn’t materialise for several days , and eventually I stopped checking the retraction link:

Maybe they are still arguing over the retraction notice, with lawyers being involved? Gambacorti-Passerini has currently 26 papers on PubPeer. For example:

Luca Mologni, Hafedh Dekhil , Monica Ceccon , Stefania Purgante , Cathy Lan , Loredana Cleris , Vera Magistroni , Franca Formelli , Carlo B. Gambacorti-Passerini Colorectal tumors are effectively eradicated by combined inhibition of {beta}-catenin, KRAS, and the oncogenic transcription factor ITF2 Cancer Research (2010) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-10-1108 

A fake paper by Gambacorti-Passerini with Gabriela Marfe was discussed in November 2024 Shorts. Another example:

M. Ceccon, L. Mologni , G. Giudici , R. Piazza , A. Pirola , D. Fontana , C. Gambacorti-Passerini Treatment Efficacy and Resistance Mechanisms Using the Second-Generation ALK Inhibitor AP26113 in Human NPM-ALK-Positive Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Molecular Cancer Research (2015) doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-14-0157

More fake western blots, and I am showing you only the appers where Gambacorti-Passerini is last author and hence the main responsible:

Carmen J. Tartari , Rosalind H. Gunby , Addolorata M.L. Coluccia , Roberta Sottocornola , Barbara Cimbro , Leonardo Scapozza , Arianna Donella-Deana , Lorenzo A. Pinna , Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini Characterization of some molecular mechanisms governing autoactivation of the catalytic domain of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase Journal of Biological Chemistry (2008) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m706067200 

Maybe he should retire, along wiht all of his papers?

Monica Ceccon, Luca Mologni, William Bisson , Leonardo Scapozza , Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini Crizotinib-resistant NPM-ALK mutants confer differential sensitivity to unrelated Alk inhibitors Molecular Cancer Research (2013) doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-12-0569 

This is how Gambacorti contributed to Imanitib research, with his Spanish colleague Mireia Duñach (PubPeer record):

Addolorata Maria Luce Coluccia, Angelo Vacca, Mireia Duñach , Luca Mologni, Sara Redaelli , Victor H Bustos , Daniela Benati , Lorenzo A Pinna , Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini Bcr-Abl stabilizes beta-catenin in chronic myeloid leukemia through its tyrosine phosphorylation The EMBO Journal (2007) doi: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601485 

The two other papers contain their own forgeries. A more recent paper with Addolorata Maria Luce Coluccia:

Concetta Saponaro , Sara Sergio , Antonio Coluccia , Maria De Luca , Giuseppe La Regina , Luca Mologni , Valeria Famiglini , Valentina Naccarato , Daniela Bonetti , Candice Gautier , Stefano Gianni , Daniele Vergara , Michel Salzet , Isabelle Fournier , Cecilia Bucci , Romano Silvestri , Carlo Gambacorti Passerini, Michele Maffia, Addolorata Maria Luce Coluccia β-catenin knockdown promotes NHERF1-mediated survival of colorectal cancer cells: implications for a double-targeted therapy Oncogene (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41388-018-0170-y

 Here a clinical trial with Imanitib, and a fake gel:

Alessandra Aloisi , Sandra Di Gregorio , Fabio Stagno , Patrizia Guglielmo , Francesca Mannino , Maria Pia Sormani , Paolo Bruzzi , Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini , Giuseppe Saglio , Salvatore Venuta , Rosario Giustolisi , Angelo Messina , Paolo Vigneri BCR-ABL nuclear entrapment kills human CML cells: ex vivo study on 35 patients with the combination of imatinib mesylate and leptomycin B Blood (2006) doi: 10.1182/blood-2005-05-2123 

This of course doesn’t mean Imanitib doesn’t work. It only means imanitib works DESPITE cheaters jumping on its bandwaggon, plluting science and then claiming credit.

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