TOKYO -- A committee discussing reforms at Japan's Riken research institute in light of scientific misconduct in what was hailed as a groundbreaking stem cell study will recommend the option of closing the center responsible for most of the research, The Nikkei learned Wednesday.

     The Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe is an offshoot of the government-affiliated research institution that set up the reform panel.

     Riken is embroiled in a controversy over papers published in the journal Nature that describe a way to make adult cells pluripotent, or able to develop into any kind of body tissue. The method is known as stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency, or STAP, and involves exposing cells to various kinds of stress.

     Haruko Obokata, a unit leader at the CDB and a co-author of the papers, was found to have faked and manipulated some of the images by a Riken investigative committee.

     The reform committee blames the misconduct not only on Obokata herself but also on institutional problems at the CDB. In recommendations to be announced Thursday, it will call for a sweeping review of the organization, including the possibility of shutting it down. Should that happen, Director Masatoshi Takeichi and Deputy Director Yoshiki Sasai, who oversaw Obokata's work, would need to resign.

     The committee will also recommend reviewing the scope of the CDB's research and replacing it with a new center if it is forced to close. Future work on regenerative medicine should be conducted in partnership with Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, which is headed by Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. But the CDB should maintain enough staffers to proceed with the world's first-ever clinical trial of a treatment using induced pluripotent stem cells.

     The committee will call on Riken itself to take responsibility for the problems with the papers by replacing directors in charge of research and compliance, among other steps.

(Nikkei)