'Landmark' stem cell study discredited

A Japanese research institute says a study that promised a revolutionary way to create stem cells should be quashed after claims its data was faulty, dealing a huge blow to what was touted as a game-changing discovery.

Riken institute head, Ryoji Noyori, who jointly won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2001, also heaped criticism on lead researcher Haruko Obokata for her 'sloppiness' and warned the controversy could shake the public's faith in research.

The findings, published by 30-year-old Obokata along with other Japanese researchers and a US-based scientist in the January edition of British journal 'Nature', outlined a relatively simple way to grow transplant tissue in the lab.

But it faced hard questions as the respected institute, which sponsored the study, launched an inquiry last month over the credibility of its data used in the explosive findings.

Among key concerns was that researchers used erroneous images - crucial to supporting the study - which resembled those used in Obokata's doctoral dissertation in 2011.

'I apologise that the papers which Riken researchers recently announced in Nature caused an incident that could hurt the credibility of the scientific community,' Noyori told a press briefing.

'This immature researcher handled and collected enormous amounts of research data, and handled it with sloppiness ... This must never happen.'

Riken did not offer an opinion on whether the results of the study were valid, citing a continuing probe. But the institute itself cannot unilaterally retract the paper.

'I have judged that what is most important was for the paper to be swiftly retracted and to conduct the research again. I have suggested that to the authors,' said Masatoshi Takeichi, director of Riken's Centre for Developmental Biology.

'However, retraction of the paper is left to the Nature magazine, upon a full agreement of all of the core authors involved.'

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'Landmark' stem cell study discredited