An investigation panel at the University of Tokyo plans to make public this week a report indicating that Kazunari Taira, a professor of biochemistry engineering, fabricated a scientific paper on human enzyme experiments, sources said Saturday.
The paper was published by Taira, 53, in an overseas scientific journal in 2003 in which he stated that his research team had succeeded in having E. coli bacteria produce a human enzyme called Dicer -- so called as it dices RNA -- by implanting a Dicer gene in a plasmid.
If true, it would have been the first time that the gene had been successfully produced by E. coli bacteria.
The sources said the university is expected to convene a disciplinary panel to decide what measures to take against Taira, who is part of the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology at the university's Graduate School of Engineering.
After the RNA Society of Japan said in April that this and 11 other scientific experiments involving Taira's team cannot be reproduced, the panel asked him to re-examine the experiment that was the subject of the February 2003 paper.
Taira initially told the panel he did not have notes or samples for the experiment, but in November said he had found the plasmid he used and that his assistant reproduced the experiment.
The panel found, however, that the Dicer gene had been implanted in a different part of the plasmid and that a different strain of E. coli bacteria had been used, the sources said.
The sources said it is not known if Taira deliberately used different samples.
He has denied any involvement, saying his assistant conducted both the original experiment and the reproduction.
Taira is regarded as an expert in research into RNA interference, a method of preventing disease genes from functioning via the use of RNA.