Three Chinese scientists have been removed from their positions after a whistle-blower raised questions about their research. Nankai University and Sun Yat-sen University announced the decisions.
Nankai University announced on Saturday that Chen Quan had been removed as dean of its College of Life Sciences. The university said Chen, as corresponding author, failed to properly oversee the quality and authenticity of experimental data in a paper published in Nature Cancer in 2024.
Sun Yat-sen University said Kang Tiebang had been removed as deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, and Kuang Dongming was no longer associate dean of its School of Life Sciences. Kang was the corresponding author for a paper published in Nature Cell Biology in 2020 that had various data and image errors.
Kuang was accused of similar misconduct associated with three papers published in Nature Cell Biology, Science Advances and Cell. The whistle-blower is a former doctoral student and blogger known as Student Geng.
