根据日本媒体的报道，12月19日，日本理化研究所最终宣布，小保方关于STAP细胞的重复研究宣告失败。经过将近1年的时间，STAP细胞闹剧先是在《自然》同期发表2篇论文引起轰动，随后受到广泛质疑，被所在机构成立调查委员会调查，最终被认定属于学术不端，两篇论文全部撤回，并导致日本非常著名的发育生物学中心被撤销重建，小保方的指导老师著名国际诱导干细胞学家上吊自杀，但是仍然给验证这种简单地让人吃惊的酸处理诱导干细胞存在的机会，理研于今年4月开始了验证实验，地点选在了神户市的发生及再生综合研究中心，这里是此前的STAP研究主要基地。开始小保方被排斥在参与验证工作的行列，后来允许在全程监护的情况下参与验证工作，经过大半年的验证，最终的结论是无法验证。让这个荒唐的干细胞闹剧彻底结束，在2014年科学界上了一场轰轰烈烈的学术话剧。

Haruko Obokata, theJapanese stem-cell biologist whose papers caused a sensation earlier this yearbefore being retracted, has not succeeded in an attempt to replicate thecontroversial experiments, the Japanese media has reported.

The original papers, whichObokata co-authored and published in Nature in January^{1, 2}, claimed toprovide a way of producing 'pluripotent' stem cells — cells with the ability todevelop into almost any cell type in the body — by a much easier route thanused by earlier methods, including a technology that won the 2012 physiologyNobel prize. Obokata's technique involved inducing pluripotency in mouse adultcells by subjecting them to stress, such as physical pressure or exposure toacid. The technique was called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency,or STAP.

The papers garneredmuch excitement, but immediately came under attackby social media that noted apparently manipulated images.Investigations by the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, whereObokata works, found that shehad committed scientific misconduct, and the paperswere retracted.

Obokata, however, stood byher results, and the RIKEN Center gave her until the end of November to provethat she could reproduce them.

In the experiments, thecells were engineered to glow with green fluorescence when they expressed genesrelated to pluripotency. Obokata's repeat experiments reportedly produced suchgreen glowing cells. But this is only a preliminary test and involves just afew such cells. More rigorous tests, including the introduction of the cells toa mouse embryo to see whether they could contribute to various tissues in adeveloping animal, didnot produce the hoped-for results.

An official announcementwill be made at a press conference on 19 December.

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