RETRACTED: Identification of Phosphorylated p38 as a Novel DAPK-Interacting Partner during TNFα-Induced Apoptosis in Colorectal Tumor Cells

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the corresponding author.The Editorial Office was recently contacted by corresponding author Dr. Regine Schneider-Stock and informed that Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg had completed an investigation into questionable practices related to figure presentation in the August 2009 article entitled “Identification of Phosphorylated p38 as a Novel DAPK-Interacting Partner during TNFa-Induced Apoptosis in Colorectal Tumor Cells” (Volume 175, pages 557-570; http://dx.doi.org/10.2353/ajpath.2009.080853) and the March 2013 article “Death-Associated Protein Kinase Controls STAT3 Activity in Intestinal Epithelial Cells” (volume 182, pages 1005-1020; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2012.11.026).The official statement from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg is included below:“The Commission for the Investigation of Scientific Malpractice of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has reviewed allegations of the manipulation of images in two publications by Prof. Dr. Regine Schneider-Stock, published in the American Journal of Pathology. In the first journal article “Identification of Phosphorylated p38 as a Novel DAPK-Interacting Partner during TNFa-Induced Apoptosis in Colorectal Tumor Cells” (2009) as well as in the second journal article, “Death associated protein kinase (DAPK) controls STAT3 activity in intestinal epithelial cells” (2013), the Commission has identified scientific misconduct. The researcher had personally approached the Commission, once the allegations had been conveyed to her.Upon the recommendation of the Commission and in accordance with FAU's President, Prof. Schneider-Stock has requested the retraction of the publications. In order to secure the quality of future publications of her research group Prof. Schneider-Stock has personally introduced a guideline for the correct handling, analysis and evaluation of data, especially for young researchers. The Commission has deemed this proactive measure to be highly favorable.”The head of the Commission for Scientific Misconduct at the University of Magdeburg, where Dr. Schneider-Stock was employed at the time the 2009 article was written, has been informed of the inquiry and the recommendation to request retraction. The request for further details regarding this investigation was declined.The articles are therefore being retracted from The American Journal of Pathology by the American Society for Investigative Pathology and all authors have been informed of this decision. Dr. Schneider-Stock states that “Although our paper contains absolutely solid, reproducible and interesting data […] the commission feels this is a contempt against the good scientific practice of our University and requests a retraction of this publication.” Both of these articles have already had published corrections to adjust previous issues with figure presentation. These published corrections (volume 185, page 2681; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2015.05.022 and volume 186, page 1710; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2016.02.019) are no longer applicable.