Abdelrahman
A neuroscientist facing allegations of image manipulation and duplication in his published work has announced his resignation from the University of Minnesota, effective March 1.
Sylvain Lesné has remained active in his research at the university in recent years, despite growing concerns that recently led to the retraction of one of his key studies on Alzheimer’s disease. This influential paper was believed to open new avenues for treatment.
A spokesperson for the university confirmed Lesné’s resignation in a written statement on Monday, providing no further details about the decision. They did mention, however, that the institution has notified medical journals regarding “data integrity concerns” related to four additional articles co-authored by Lesné.
“The University has been in contact with those journals to suggest the retraction of the publications when deemed appropriate,” the spokesperson said.
Lesné did not respond to a request for comments on Tuesday. Notably, he was the sole author who opposed the retraction last year when his co-authors voted to withdraw their 2006 paper published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a potential molecular target for Alzheimer’s treatment.
This target was referred to as Aβ*56, or abeta star 56. According to the original research, mice that mimicked the effects of this molecule demonstrated severe memory loss, indicated by their performance in maze navigation. The researchers theorized that a medication aimed at this molecule could potentially alleviate some debilitating symptoms of Alzheimer’s, which remains an incurable condition and a major contributor to dementia and mortality among the aging population in the United States.
Although a review conducted by the university found no research misconduct associated with the study, the authors acknowledged in their retraction that certain images exhibited “signs of excessive manipulation, including splicing, duplication, and the use of an eraser tool.”
Karen Ashe, the senior author, stated last year that she consented to the retraction partly because subsequent studies had replicated and supported her team’s initial findings on abeta star 56. She has since shifted her research efforts toward exploring other potential molecular targets for Alzheimer’s treatment.
