Embattled scientist Haruko Obokata has failed to produce her so-called STAP cells in experiments at Riken, officials at the research institute and other sources said Thursday, casting further doubt on her claims.
Obokata, a Riken researcher, was the lead author of a pair of papers that claimed to have discovered a new and simpler way to produce pluripotent stem cells, which are capable of developing into any type of tissue, through a process dubbed stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency, or STAP.
Obokata and her team were lauded after their papers on the purported STAP discovery appeared in the prestigious journal Nature earlier this year. The papers were eventually retracted due to allegations of misconduct, and Riken has been trying to verify Obokata's findings ever since.