Thousands of studies could be flawed due to contaminated cells

This study shows why it is important for researchers to consistently take these steps. The authors of the current research make a number of suggestions for additional improvements to the current situation, including that: papers reporting on the discovery of misidentified cell lines need to be clearly labelled so that other researchers can easily find them to make sure they don't "spread" misleading research in their own publications those aiming to clean up the contamination problem should write about the contamination, using social media campaigns and general media coverage to highlight the issue and inspire greater research scrutiny in cases where uses of misidentified cell lines produce a false conclusion papers should be officially withdrawn The findings should not cause unnecessary concern about existing drug treatments. Not all of these "contaminated" studies would have assessed potential new drugs. If they did, any that showed promise would then have had to undergo rigorous testing in animals, and then humans, before they could be used in routine practice. Links To The Headlines More than 30,000 scientific studies could be WRONG due to widespread cell contamination dating back 60 years, new report warns. Mail Online, October 17 2017 Links To Science Horbach SPJM, Halffman W. The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature. PLOS One. Published online October 12 2017
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