Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue

Y-shaped biomolecules called antibodies are scientific workhorse tools that researchers use to bind to and track specific proteins. Credit: Nemes Laszlo/Science Photo Library Catalogue entries for more than 100 antibodies sold by the research services and supply company Thermo Fisher Scientific contain images that have apparently been manipulated, according to a pair of researchers who specialize in scientific integrity issues. On 28 May, the researchers documented their findings online in a database that includes 127 “problematic images” associated with the company’s antibodies. Issues with the images — which are included in the catalogue to demonstrate antibodies’ quality and performance — range from minor alterations that make the images look nicer to extensive changes that raise questions of data soundness. The effort was led by Reese Richardson, a metascientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. How to spot suspicious papers: a sleuthing guide for scientists Science sleuths have uncovered numerous manipulations in images from published scientific papers , but the latest discoveries are the first set of issues found in a vendor catalogue. Image alteration does not necessarily mean the underlying products are defective. Antibodies — specialized Y-shaped biomolecules — are a crucial tool for researchers in the biological sciences, who use them in experiments to bind to and track specific proteins. …