Antibody data manipulation extends to thousands of images across 15 suppliers

After identifying antibody validation data manipulation in Thermo Fisher Scientific’s catalogue in May, the science sleuths and researchers behind the finding have now uncovered doctored validation data on a much larger scale, with over 18,000 images relating to over 17,000 antibodies from at least 15 different supplier companies.

Reese Richardson, Elisabeth Bik and Sholto David – who spotted the first doctored blot – have led the investigation. Community reports have also come in from across the world, with the annotated images continuing to be collated in an online repository. The team has traced some suspected image manipulation back over a decade ago.