Neuroscientists Work Earns Three Expressions of Concern

A journal has issued expressions of concern for three papers from 2014 and 2015 by a group at Stony Brook University in New York whose work has come under scrutiny on PubPeer for suspect images.

The articles, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, were written by Adan Aguirre, a pharmacological scientist at Stony Brook, and his colleagues. Several other papers by Aguirre’s group — in various iterations of co-authors — have been flagged on PubPeer over the years.

The articles, “TACE/ADAM17 is Essential for Oligodendrocyte Development and CNS Myelination,” “TGFβ Signaling Regulates the Timing of CNS Myelination by Modulating Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Cycle Exit through SMAD3/4/FoxO1/Sp1,” and “Oligodendrocyte Regeneration and CNS Remyelination Require TACE/ADAM17,” carry similar notices about the reliability of data in select figures, and note that the journal:

Will make a final decision on this article pending a full investigation and reproduction of results and conclusions …

Marina Picciotto, the editor-in-chief of the journal, told us:

We were made aware of issues related to these manuscripts by the institution and have asked for the raw data from the corresponding author. We are waiting for more data to move forward.

Aguirre, the corresponding author on all three papers, did not respond to requests for comment.

All of the studies were funded by National Institutes of Health and two also were funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The TGB-beta study was funded in part by the Spanish Ministry of Education. Aguirre received roughly $2 million in funding from the NIH between 2007 and 2017.

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