An anti-inflammatory drug did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. The Phase 3 ZEUS trial showed that Ziltivekimab failed to reduce MACE. An important result for cardiovascular immunology that will trigger plenty of discussion. www.novonordisk.com/news-and-med...

News Details

novonordisk.com

Today I'm posting a blog about another ridiculous antibody blunder. Dozens of papers in the senescence and ageing field have mistakenly used an antibody for E. coli β-galactosidase when trying to stain for the human protein with the same name. forbetterscience.com/2026/07/21/d...

TGFβ signals through TGFBR2 to drive fibrogenesis. Reliable TGFBR2 antibodies are essential for studying disease mechanisms and developing new therapies. 4 of 11 commercial antibodies recognized TGFBR2 specifically. #AntibodyValidation here the report: zenodo.org/records/20077560

A patient with WHIM syndrome experienced spontaneous disease correction after massive hemorrhagic shock. Read the fascinating story in NEJM: tinyurl.com/WHIM-NEJM 🧪

Somatic Genetic Rescue of Immunodeficiency in WHIM Syndrome | NEJM

A patient with WHIM syndrome, caused by CXCR4 chemokine receptor hyperactivity, had sustained remission after splenic rupture. A somatic mutation produced CXCR4 haploinsufficiency, suggesting allel...

tinyurl.com

A patient with metastasis achieved complete remission without anti-cancer treatment. After open-heart surgery complicated by an infection, all metastases disappeared. Could a surgery-associated immune activation triggered an anti-tumor response? tinyurl.com/Surgery-Cancer

Altered Antibody Validation Data on Vendor Sites Alarms Researchers. After several examples of undisclosed alterations in reagent suppliers’ antibody catalogues surfaced, researchers call for transparency to rebuild trust. www.the-scientist.com/altered-anti...

Altered Antibody Validation Data on Vendor Sites Alarms Researchers | The Scientist

After several examples of undisclosed alterations in reagent suppliers’ antibody catalogues surfaced, researchers call for transparency to rebuild trust.

the-scientist.com

The time-of-day immunotherapy study has been retracted. It was the only randomized trial supporting improved survival with morning administration of cancer immunotherapy. Nature Medicine concluded that the extent and nature of the concerns justified retraction. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A group of research integrity activists say they have found widespread evidence of image manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific’s catalog of antibody reagents. #chemsky 🧪

Sleuths say Thermo Fisher doctored data to sell antibodies

Apparent manipulation of validation images in reagent catalog concerns researchers

cen.acs.org

I am sending an open letter to Thermo Fisher. Their response to my response to their manipulated western blot is bullying and petty. Yes, this western blot really is manipulated, it is unfair on me to say otherwise. I don't make those accusations lightly, and I have a (minor) reputation to defend.

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

See also NRF2 and Nrf2 (Nuclear Respiratory Factor vs. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2). Totally different proteins that get mixed up all the time! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38815934/

Unraveling the NRF2 confusion: Distinguishing nuclear respiratory factor 2 from nuclear erythroid factor 2 - PubMed

In recent years, the acronym NRF2 has garnered significant attention in scientific discourse. However, this attention has occasionally led to confusion due to the existence of two distinct proteins sh...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

100s labs ordered the wrong "p16" antibody. They wanted to study p16-INK4a, but bought p16-ARC antibodies. 312 papers got it wrong. Now the literature is polluted with false mechanistic pathways. As a reminder: validate your reagents. But also read the datasheet and use your brain.

Sholto David@sholtodavid.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Today I'm posting a new blog about an astonishing scientific own goal. Hundreds of papers have reported using a totally wrong antibody to investigate the tumor suppressor p16. This mistake has happened because scientists have muddled the names of two proteins. forbetterscience.com/2026/06/02/m...

Today I'm posting a new blog about an astonishing scientific own goal. Hundreds of papers have reported using a totally wrong antibody to investigate the tumor suppressor p16. This mistake has happened because scientists have muddled the names of two proteins. forbetterscience.com/2026/06/02/m...

New @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint led by @pranujanp.bsky.social, studying errors such as incorrect primer sequences and contaminated #CellLines in #circRNA papers in high impact factor journals. We found reagent errors in 51% of n=118 circRNA papers in high IF journals in 2022 (1/4)🧪

Weekend reads: White House proposal prohibits federal funds for APCs; sleuths say Thermo Fisher doctored data; sleuth in China takes to social media

Weekend reads: White House proposal prohibits federal funds for APCs; sleuths say Thermo Fisher doctored data; sleuth in China takes to social media

If your week flew by — we know ours did — catch up here with what you might have missed. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Critics of birdsong study fight to be named in Nature’s retraction El…

retractionwatch.com

Thermo Fisher has responded to research integrity activists who spotted apparent manipulation in its antibody catalog: "In ... preparing antibody images for publication on our website, some images may have been adjusted to clarify for presentation purposes." More: cen.acs.org/research-int...

Unreliable and underperforming antibodies are a longstanding problem, so while the reveal of apparently manipulated antibody data in Thermo Fisher's catalog was a shock, the frustration it sparked among many researchers is perhaps no surprise. My reporting:

Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue

Scientists have long worried about the reliability of commercial antibodies, and the latest findings have sparked fresh concerns.

nature.com

@dangaristo.bsky.social reports on the brouhaha for @nature.com : www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue

Scientists have long worried about the reliability of commercial antibodies, and the latest findings have sparked fresh concerns.

nature.com

Reese Richardson@reeserichardson.bsky.social · 3mo ago

TL;DR: We've identified more than 100 cases of apparent manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific's antibody verification data. @sholtodavid.bsky.social @johanduchene.bsky.social reeserichardson.blog/2026/05/28/h...

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue

Scientists have long worried about the reliability of commercial antibodies, and the latest findings have sparked fresh concerns.

nature.com

Every scientist should know: • antibodies (Abs) can bind the wrong target • non-validated Abs can lead to false conclusions • Abs should be validated before use YCharOS tests commercial Abs in KO cell lines ycharos.com Only Good Antibodies makes the data easy to browse onlygoodantibodies.co.uk

Reese Richardson@reeserichardson.bsky.social · 3mo ago

TL;DR: We've identified more than 100 cases of apparent manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific's antibody verification data. @sholtodavid.bsky.social @johanduchene.bsky.social reeserichardson.blog/2026/05/28/h...

TL;DR: We've identified more than 100 cases of apparent manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific's antibody verification data. @sholtodavid.bsky.social @johanduchene.bsky.social reeserichardson.blog/2026/05/28/h...

How much of Thermo Fisher’s antibody data has been manipulated?

We’ve documented more than 100 instances of apparent data manipulation in Thermo’s catalog

reeserichardson.blog

This is a very good question. Several other antibodies produced in my lab (X77 specific for Xenopus p53, for example), are also distributed by Thermofisher. It is funny that the datasheet showing the epitope was also an internal document. We suspect that someone in our lab released these clones.

In 1994, my lab generated this antibody that is now sold by Thermo Fisher (HR231). They are marketing this reagent without my authorization, without any agreement or acknowledgment of our original work. www.thermofisher.com/antibody/pro... Legros Y, Lafon C, Soussi T. Oncogene. 1994;9:2071-2076.

@johanduchene.bsky.social @sholtodavid.bsky.social Spent the last hour looking, found ten more apparently manipulated Western blots in Thermo Fisher's antibody verification data (across eight different catalogued products). Thread below. www.thermofisher.com/antibody/pro...

@sholtodavid.bsky.social Have you seen this WB from ThermoFisher? Still anti-p53 antibody, but another clone (MA-12648 instead MA5-12557). It also looks like that the band in lane 3 was rotated and reused in lane 4. Moreover, it seems that same band was used for the 2 different clones.

Surprised to discover that Thermo Fisher appears to show a fake western blot for the validation of one of their p53 antibodies. I've added a diagram to show the very similar bands. This does not appear to be one of the "published figures" but their own internal data.

@oga-community.bsky.social @ycharos.bsky.social

Sholto David@sholtodavid.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Surprised to discover that Thermo Fisher appears to show a fake western blot for the validation of one of their p53 antibodies. I've added a diagram to show the very similar bands. This does not appear to be one of the "published figures" but their own internal data.

TREM2+ macrophages have rapidly emerged as key regulators in diseases. Studying them requires specific antibodies. Among 14 tested antibodies in KO cell lines by WB, 5 are specific. Pick up the right human TREM2 Antibody. Full report: tinyurl.com/TREM2Ab Or here: tinyurl.com/OGA-TREM2

Another example of how technique variation can really matter. Here, another example of use of cycloheximide in ribosome profiling can lead to artifacts that affect interpretation. Really careful experiments to suggest that 2018 paper in Nature likely mistaken.

McManus Lab at CMU@mcmanuslabrna.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Happy to announce publication of a collaboration between my group, Neelam Sen's lab and Alan Hinnebusch at NAR combining FACS-uORF (MPRA) and Ribo-seq to clarify how Ded1 enhances mRNA translation. Great team effort! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Data manipulation allegations hit an approved autoimmune drug. Tavneos for vasculitis is now under scrutiny for data changes that may have flipped a negative trial positive FDA: – doubts about efficacy – proposed market withdrawal - worries about safety www.science.org/content/blog... 🧪

The FDA Cracks Down on Tavneos

science.org