A government-affiliated laboratory on Monday deleted an article on stem cell research papers that have generated controversy from its website, citing "an ongoing investigation concerning allegations about the papers."
The Riken Center for Development Biology in Kobe said it is considering setting up its own investigation team — separate from the probe currently conducted by its headquarters in Wako, Saitama Prefecture — to clarify the responsibility of checking and overseeing the papers.
The papers, published in late January in the British science journal Nature, were authored by a group led by Haruko Obokata, who belongs to the Kobe center. The center put up the news article on Jan. 30.
The Riken headquarters announced interim results of its investigations last week, saying the papers contained serious errors and it will further examine if there were any deliberate acts of impropriety.