A leading cancer researcher has been sacked by Imperial College London after an independent investigation identified what it called a ¡°clear case of research misconduct¡±.

The dismissal of Eric Lam, who led a team of about 18 researchers at Imperial, where he was professor of molecular oncology, follows the??of a 2018 paper published in the?Nature-branded title,?Cell Death & Disease.

According to the retraction notice, which was posted on 25 May, the paper was retracted at the request of Imperial?after an investigation that found ¡°a number of concerns with this article¡±, including that some results presented in Western blot panels ¡°have been altered to bring them more in line with other test results¡± and that ¡°underlying data for [an experiment] has been manipulated¡±.

There was also evidence that the Western blots and other results presented in various charts as ¡°from contemporaneous experiments¡± had, in fact, ¡°been performed by different researchers more than a year apart¡±, the notice says.

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According to?, which first published news of Professor Lam¡¯s dismissal, his work has been subject to scrutiny on PubPeer for years after a 2018 post alleged that images from a 2003 paper by him and others published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry were suspicious.

A?spokesman?for Imperial told?Times Higher Education?that it had ¡°commissioned a thorough independent investigation following allegations of research misconduct against Dr Eric?Lam¡±.

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¡°We found a clear case of research misconduct, and Dr?Lam?has been dismissed from Imperial College London. We contacted the journal?Cell Death & Disease?to retract this paper and informed Dr?Lam¡¯s funders of our decision,¡± he said.

According to the?, two of Professor Lam¡¯s co-authors from Imperial agreed with the retraction, while the other co-authors on the paper, including several from Imperial and Thailand¡¯s Khon Kaen University, did not.

Asked whether the university had considered allegations related to other papers by Professor Lam, who has published more than 250 times, Imperial said that ¡°the panel considered a number of allegations relating to several papers by Dr Lam, but only found evidence of research misconduct in relation to this paper and only sought this retraction¡±.

THE?was unable to contact Professor Lam, who according to his ORCID profile is now a visiting professor of oncology at Sun Yat-sen University, in China¡¯s Guangdong province.

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The dismissal brings to an end a glittering scientific career in the UK, which saw Professor Lam and his research group of about 18 researchers handed Breast Cancer Campaign¡¯s Research Team of the Year award in 2014 in a ceremony at the House of Lords for a study on why women with breast cancer can become resistant to chemotherapy.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com