Nobel prize winner Shinya Yamanaka has apologized for failing to archive lab data, after allegations that he doctored a photo in a 2000 paper.

Nobel prize winner Shinya Yamanaka has apologized for failing to archive lab data, after allegations that he doctored a photo in a 2000 paper.

Kyoto University conducted an investigation into the paper after Yamanaka reported the allegation. Despite the university finding no problem with the paper’s conclusions, Dr. Yamanaka admitted he was unable to reproduce the lab records that would support the validity of the image. The data belonged to a co-author of the paper who was unable to locate it.

“I would like to express remorse from my heart and apologize,” he said in a press conference.

The apology comes in the wake of the resignation of two senior academics from Japan’s prestigious Riken institute, after the use of inauthentic images in major research papers.   

Xavier Symons
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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