Three months after a series of high-profile catalysis papers were retracted by the laboratory of Columbia University chemist Dalibor Sames, another four are being tossed on the pyre. The latest retractions, one of which appeared last week in Organic Letters along with three due out Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, involve efforts to manipulate chemical bonds to make compounds easier to turn into useful products such as pharmaceuticals. It's a hot topic among organic chemists, who say they are sorry to lose such results.
The first round of retractions came after members of Sames' lab were unable to replicate the results in papers by first author Bengu Sezen, who received her Ph.D. from Columbia last year. Sezen is now pursuing another Ph.D. under molecular biologist Elmar Schiebel at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, according to the group's Web site. She says that the Sames group members did not perform the reactions properly.
In the current round of retractions, Sames says two independent scientists worked together to try to replicate the work. "My laboratory has conducted the re-examination of Ms. Sezen's work very carefully," Sames wrote to Science. "I have no doubt that our conclusions are correct."
Sezen did not give her approval for the latest retractions, and she maintains that some of the results have been independently verified. In an e-mail exchange with Science, she also implies that she is being made a scapegoat.
At the center of the dispute, she says, are data from a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer used to identify the compounds present in a chemical mixture. Sezen says she received a report from Columbia in December that a fraudulent NMR spectrum was found in her lab binder. She says she asked Columbia officials for a copy of the spectrum and received two in return. When she asked why they sent the second spectra, she says she was told it showed a spectrum from another Sames group member that was on the back of the alleged fraudulent spectrum. "Is he/she trying to frame me?" Sezen wonders.
Sames and other Columbia University officials declined to discuss the case in detail, citing an ongoing investigation. Columbia officials also say they withhold comment on such reviews to protect the rights of those involved.
Related sites
Journal of the American Chemical Society papers
- Selective C-Arylation of Free (NH)-Heteroarenes via Catalytic C-H Bond Functionalization
- C-C Bond Formation via C-H Bond Activation: Catalytic Arylation and Alkenylation of Alkane Segments
- Diversity Synthesis via C-H Bond Functionalization: Concept-Guided Development of New C-Arylation Methods for Imidazoles
- JACS site where the retractions are scheduled to be posted
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