Top Cancer Center wants to withdraw or correct dozens of studies

Other articles that Dr. David contained irregularities were based on data generated in laboratories other than those of the Dana-Farber scientists, Dr. Rollins. He said the institute had begun investigating possible data errors in some of Dr. David reported cases published a blog post about them on January 2or the Harvard Crimson followed with a story A few days later. He also said that a review of three of Dr. David highlighted manuscripts did not support the allegations of data irregularities.

“The presence of image discrepancies in an article is not evidence of an author's intent to deceive,” he added. “That conclusion can only be drawn after a careful, evidence-based investigation, which is an integral part of our response.”

Dr. David, who earned a PhD in cellular and molecular biology from Newcastle University in Britain, said he routinely studied scientific papers on his own time. Despite the fact that there is only a single, cheap supporter on the market online platform Patreon — which represents the only income he earns from his work — he estimated he had left about 2,000 comments on PubPeer, a website where scientists provide public feedback on studies.

Although he often delves into low-quality research from China, Dr. David, he recently investigated researchers working with American-based scientists whose studies he had previously found flawed. After coming across irregularities in the work of some Dana-Farber scientists, he visited the institute's website, started scrolling down the leadership page, and then delved into those researchers' papers.

He identified some issues using AI software before checking them himself. Others he found himself. Other PubPeer users had noticed some of the problems years earlier.

“You have a group of people in one institution with image problems,” said Dr. David. “How many mistakes are we happy when people make and just say, 'That's an innocent mistake'?”

One of the most common anomalies he discovered was the results of a western blot, a method used to detect proteins, which were copied and pasted in different experiments, falsely suggesting that a particular protein had been identified. In other cases, he said, the images appeared copied and rotated or stretched in a way that suggested deliberate manipulation.

In one study, he found that an image of mice from the first day of an experiment seemed to reappear in the results on day 16, in a different part of the experiment.

“I'm concerned about the whole process, and not so much about specifically this spot or that spot,” said Dr. David. “Something clearly went wrong along the way.”

The findings also highlighted the conflicts of interest that can complicate internal reviews of data irregularities. Dr. Rollins, Dana-Farber's research integrity officer, is the author of several of the articles published by Dr. David are marked. The institute said he would be barred from any investigation related to his research.

In the case of Dr. Glimcher, the institute's director, will lead a committee of administrators to make a final decision on any findings.