The paper, which looked at the sensitivity of lung cancers to immunotherapy, appeared in April 2023. The retraction notice published on January 14, 2026 states first author Kevin Ng was responsible for the manipulation in the paper, including manipulated data in several figures. The Francis Crick Institute’s integrity team “was made aware of concerns” regarding the study after it was published, according to a statement sent by Kathryn Ingham, research communications and public affairs lead for the organization. Ingham declined to comment on the origins of the concerns.

According to the Crick report, Ng manipulated cell binding data in one of the figures, and experiments relating to three other figures couldn’t be verified. The manipulated data supported the paper’s main conclusion, according to the report, and the institute recommended the paper be retracted. 

Co-corresponding author Julian Downward, associate research director at the Crick Institute, has 27 papers with comments on PubPeer, many of which were flagged for image concerns. In 2015, Downward lost two papers in one month for data issues.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2026/01/14/nature-retraction-francis-crick-institute-data-manipulation-phd-student/

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