"No misconduct here": Author defends addendum that sleuth says is "inadequate"

The 2002 paper, which describes the behavior of Langerhans cells in normal and inflamed skin, was published in Nature Immunology and has been cited 774 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. The article received a correction in 2003 to replace two "incorrect" figures. Over 20 years later, PubPeer commenter "Archasia belfragei" flagged issues with different figures, noting in December that some PCR bands were "more similar than expected".
An addendum on April, 2025 addressed the data errors, which, according to the notice, "may have occurred during the assembly of PCR measurements". Miriam Merad, lead author of the paper and now Chair of the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at Mount Sinai in New York, called the similarity between bands an “unfortunate mistake in assembling the PCR.
But image expert David Sanders, a biologist at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., told that the addendum is "inadequate in multiple senses". The "extent and nature of the problems with the figures would, in my opinion, dictate that the article should have been retracted", he added.
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