Strutt anger at US scientists

A University of Sheffield researcher has claimed a team of American scientists have failed to properly reference his work in a recent molecular biology paper.

Professor David Strutt, of the University’s Department of Biomedical Science, has made complaints to a Stanford University research team, along with four other researchers.

They claim that most of their conclusions in the Stanford paper had already been drawn by other scientists, who had not been properly referenced.

Much of Professor Strutt’s research centres around how groups of cells "polarize" themselves, for example how hairs and feathers on skin communicate with each other so as to point in the same direction.

The American paper, entitled ‘Asymmetric Homotypic Interactions of the Atypical Cadherin Flamingo Mediate Intercellular Polarity Signaling’, was published in prestigious research journal Cell in June.

It was written by a team from the laboratory of Jeffrey Axelrod of the Stanford University School of Medicine, and looks at the "flamingo" gene, which affects how cells orient themselves.

Professor Peter Lawrence of Cambridge University also made complaints that the Stanford team’s experiments were largely the same as those in a 2004 paper he wrote, and lacked proper citations for their conclusions.He fears he may lose the credit he deserves for his work, and this may affect future funding.

Professor Axelrod denies any wrongdoing, claiming that the team made "rigourous efforts to cite the work of others in our field appropriately".

He said: "Our paper underwent a strict process of peer review prior to publication. Concerns about the review process should be directed to Cell.

"We stand by our conclusions as stated in the paper, as well as by our use of citations"
Jean-Francois Le Garrec, of France, and Marek Mlodzik and Gary Struhl, based in the USA, have also made complaints.

Mikey Smith